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Written by Maddy Muller
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Thursday, 15 October 2009 |
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It was open swim at Peninsula Pool on a beautiful Saturday afternoon. Late July heralded sunny weather and a high temperature of 97 degrees.
Carina Conley, a junior at Benson High School, scanned the pool once, and then twice. Something was amiss. A child was in trouble. One little boy who had been splashing and jumping a moment ago in the shallows was now face down in the deep water.
“Kids will float, and play around. But when I scanned again, I didn’t see him move.”
“Clear the pool!” she yelled, looking to fellow lifeguard Eric Kennedy to back her up. She jumped into the water to get to the child, following the Emergency Action Plan for rescue. She swam agilely to the little boy, past the alarmed and confused looks of other children. “Clear the pool!” she yelled again, chorused by the other lifeguards. Finally children began evacuating the pool and making way for Conley.
“It was my first real rescue, and with an unconscious victim no less,” she recounts later. But the extensive training and experience she had gained over the summer had Conley prepared to act immediately so that lives could be saved.
Lifting the little boy from her tube, she hoisted him out of the water and back on to the cement on the side of the pool. He had been face down for almost a minute, and wasn’t breathing. A fresh lifeguard immediately moved forward to perform CPR as Conley sat to catch her breath.
Ben Kowalczyk successfully resuscitated the child via child AR (assisted respiration) as the crowd watched in earnest. Conley aided in the compressions of the child’s chest, and was present to establish a pulse.
The team of lifeguards, including Madeleine Hanlon-Austin, a Grant High School senior, was presented with certificates of accomplishment by City Commissioner Nick Fish at a celebratory breakfast for the Portland Parks and Recreation youth lifeguarding teams across Portland in late August.
The routine investigation conducted by the city in all cases of near drowning was rendered irrelevant as the boy in question was transported to Legacy Emmanuel Children’s Hospital and suffered no brain damage. He is now back at home and has recovered from the ordeal. However, the situation prevented the lifeguards involved from talking to reporters covering the incident at the time.
“Our bosses didn’t want us to be interviewed because we would have been liable if he had suffered brain damage,” Explains Hanlon-Austin.
Hanlon-Austin shakes her head when asked, in retrospect, if she would have done anything differently.
“We handled that situation to the fullest of our abilities,” she recounts. “The child is alive. We did our job. And we were recognized as a really good staff. We had some people congratulate us really emotionally!”
Through the near-drowning, the lifeguards at Peninsula Pool demonstrated their competence to handle extreme situations. Their extensive training program equips them with the knowledge to do so. During the summer, all Portland lifeguards have training days once a week to maintain their skills.
“We have a lot of responsibility,” Conley reflected. “People think life guarding is easy!” But in near-death situations, the actions of a few well-trained teens can be the difference between life and death. In light of the events at Peninsula Pool, people will think twice before suggesting that teen lifeguards do not take their jobs seriously.
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