The Big Three For Aquatics

VGBA has really created a lot of unnecessary attention and stress. VGBA should have targeted shallow water kids pools only. As you know, we spent too much time, money and effort complying with VGBA in big, deep public pools where the entrapment hazard really does not exist.

I think the BIG THREE in our industry, now that VGBA has come to pass, should be the following:

1. Teaching ALL American kids to swim before age seven.

2. “Note & Float” All non-swimmers at ALL Aquatic Facilities. For this program, I believe U.S. Coast Guard Type III approved Lifejackets are the best drowning prevention for non-swimmers.  In addition, I’ll bet many local agencies would purchase and donate the lifejackets if they were allowed to print their logos or PR on front and back!!!

3. Develop NEW technologies for Drowning Prevention.

Lately, I spent a lot of time discussing footwear needs and protocols for lifeguards with another professional in our field. While this individual did a wonderful job of researching “preferred,” “acceptable,” and “not acceptable” foot wear for lifeguards, I truly believe this is a non-issue that we should not be worrying about.

We have too many other vitally important issues to consider instead of lifeguards feet! I encouraged her to do an article on it however. We really need to do a better job of picking our battles and prioritizing our needs. Lifeguard uniforms, footwear and many other protocols and procedures are all pale in comparison to the BIG THREE above.

“When will we EVER learn?”

Just this past Sunday, one of the main topics during our new year lifeguard orientation was stopping competitive and repetitive underwater swimming for time or distance.
As we all know, this dangerous underwater activity can lead to drowning or worse yet, sudden cardiac arrest.

Later during the week, I personally stopped two separate recreational swimmers from swimming repeated 75 foot lengths underwater in our competitive pool.
I had to do this because our lifeguards on duty who were just reminded to stop underwater swimming either missed both events or chose to ignore it.

These are typically very vigilant lifeguards by the way.
And we have big signs banning prolonged underwater swimming and breath-holding at each and every entrance to the pool.

Dr. A.B. Craig first started writing the about the hazards of underwater swimming and Shallow Water Blackout in the 1960’s. I first addressed in a 1983 publication.

USA Swimming and the American Red Cross both have recently banned competitive and repetitive breath-holding and underwater swimming and have included Hypoxic Training as well.

Now comes this Indiana High School Swimming coach challenging his athletes to beat him in an underwater distance swimming contest.

Of course, he nearly dies on his third length and his own swimmers recover and resuscitate him but with some delay because they thought he was just playing around.
If he had succeeded, he would have demonstrated to a multitude of impressionable teenagers how “cool” it was to swim three lengths.

Ironically, of the 11 fatalities I investigated for underwater swimmers in competitive pools, all eleven died on there third length!

And remember, the better swimmers are more likely than weaker swimmers of succumbing to SWB scenarios.

Wake-Up Water Safety People!  Stop good swimmers from killing themselves!  No more breath-holding or underwater swimming in for time or distance, PLEASE!

"Yes We Can": Timing Right To Make Swimming a Priority

In Malcolm Gladwell’s book, “The Tipping Point,” he defines a tipping point as "the moment of critical mass, the threshold, the boiling point,” when significant changes take place in our society.  When it comes to drowning in our country, I hope our society will reach the Tipping Point soon.  I know I have for a variety of reasons. 

Although Benjamin Franklin proposed making learning to swim a requirement for all schools more than 250 years ago, we have failed miserably in this endeavor.  Not only have we failed in teaching all Americans to swim at an early age, but we have been only mildly successful with “learn to swim” programs for the privileged.

As a USA Swimming study recently revealed, 60 percent of African-American and Hispanic children under the age of ten do not know how to swim compared to 30 percent of Caucasian children.  This to me is embarrassing.

But there is hope.

Now more than ever before the timing is right to teach children to swim.  We now have an African American President and the most decorated swimmer in the history of our planet in the spotlight.

Michael Phelps has already donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to promote swimming in the inner cities.  It would really be nice, and I do think effective, to get Barack Obama on board with a national campaign to teach ALL American children to swim by age seven.  Does Barack Obama know how to swim?  When, where and how did he learn?  If we can create a national program with these two stars as our sponsors to achieve this goal, we will save the lives of many Americans.

The next step towards drowning prevention is to IDENTIFY all non-swimmers and float them when they enter aquatic facilities.  This too should be a national campaign.  If every non-swimmer was identified with a clearly identifiable wrist band and placed into a properly fitting lifejacket, we would not find these individuals unconscious on the bottom of swimming pools.  This national “Note & Float” policy is much needed now because:

1.  Drowning is a quick, quiet and subtle death by suffocation.
2.  We DO NOT teach all children to swim at an early age
3.  Parents DO NOT watch their children actively, aggressively and in close proximity.
4.  Lifeguards are unable to watch all children all the time.
5.  Once a child slips beneath the surface, they are not only difficult to detect, but difficult to resuscitate as well.

With all the attention, time and money the Virginia Graeme Baker Act of 2007 is getting for a few tragic deaths each year, isn’t time to regulate ourselves to better prevent drowning by first teaching children to swim and then identifying and floating those who can’t?  This would save hundreds if not thousands of lives each year.

We can do this, we really can.  Let’s rally as a nation to prevent drowning in an organized and unified fashion.

“Yes we can!”

Summer Time Blues

Every summer at about this time I get totally frustrated with my profession.
Reports of tragic drownings seem to come across my desk on a daily basis yet we keep making the same mistakes.

Of course, many of these untimely pool deaths are avoidable.
But instead of correcting the problems, we seem to repeat the same mistakes, over and over again.

Aquatics is a Paradoxical Profession indeed:

Young children continue to drown at public pools and we continue to blame the parents, which in many cases, is well deserved.

But we failed these children because we didn’t teach them how to swim, we didn’t identify them as non-swimmers and we didn’t float them in PFDs.

Now many professionals are concerned about the liability of loaning lifejackets. Not too many children drown with an appropriate USCG approved lifejacket on.
Benjamin Franklin got it right 300 years ago: Children should be taught to swim in our schools. We should have a national program to teach every American to swim while they are in grade school and get corporate sponsors to help defray the costs.

Now that lightning occurs more often with the hazy, hot and humid dog days of summer, more and more professionals seem to be closing their indoor pools during these electrical storms.
That’s both silly and stupid. There has NEVER, EVER been an electrocution due to lightning in an indoor pool yet we keep exposing our swimmers to greater risks by removing them from the safe confines of our pools and placing them in unprotected areas. Plus, some experts believe it is both of violation of the NEC and OSHA to clear indoor pools during these storms. Those who close their indoor pools during electrical storms are not only thinking emotionally and irrationally but they are also endangering their patrons.

Conversely, prolonged breath-holding and underwater swimming for time and/or distance is allowed in most pools and the people who do these activities (like David Blaine) are envied. Breath-holding is the number one cause of swimmer death in this country yet we do little if anything to stop it, and in many cases we encourage it with hypoxic training. This is a practice that must be stopped NOW!

We empower our lifeguards to make decisions, yet in a crisis, we hope for quick, mature decisions from “professional rescuers” who have a child’s brain. The centers for decision making and judgment do not solidify in the cerebral cortex until age 25 so how can we expect youngsters to think and act like adults when they are not equipped to do so. My belief is that the safety of aquatic facilities in NOT in the hands of the lifeguards, but rather the on-site and regular supervision of those lifeguards. Pools need an older, larger, more mature safety team mentoring lifeguards daily. I have a very cynical saying, “lifeguarding is for Losers.”

I believe that statement to be true but it’s not the lifeguards fault. It’s our fault for putting young teenagers in a position of failure without properly training and supervising them. Teenage lifeguards can have the best training in the world but they still need on-site adult and professional supervision.

Stop Oprah from Killing

Is there anyway of stopping or counter-pointing the Oprah Show coming up next week that will feature David Blaine attempting to hold his breath for 16 minutes underwater???
This will precipitate many deaths.
Just this week, three young synchronized swimmers in Seattle all blacked-out at the same time while doing breath-holding drills.
In a two week period of February, 2008, three young athletes died in three different YMCAs while doing breath-holding drills.
Two of the victims were being coached at the time.
His TV appearance will encourage many adolescence and young adults to do the same.
Unfortunately they will die in the process.
Can you help me please on this vitally important area?

Death at the Pool

Monday, Presidents Day, 2008, was the day I have feared for nearly 40

years.

The day and the incident came minutes after 8 AM. I as an aquatic
professional and as a facility manager have dedicated my life to
preventing aquatic injuries and death. As I tell everyone, I know I
can't prevent a death in my swimming pools but if and when it does
happens, I don't not want to be falsely accused of a drowning. Sadly,

we had a pool death but it fortunately it wasn't a drowning.

Michael Rothkopf, a celebrated 68 year old business professor swam a
mile for time in our shallow water lap pool on a daily basis. Monday
morning was no different.

But as Michael left the pool wall under my
office window and began swimming from 3.5 feet of water to the five foot
end of the pool, he stood up. To stand up in a shallow pool while
swimming a lap is typically no big deal, but somehow lifeguard Kara
Mason thought this was strange. As she continued to walk towards
Michael she kept watching him closely. Our lifeguards mostly walk
rather than sit.

As soon as he stood up he then laid back, face up in
the water and appeared to be relaxing. Other witnesses also described
Michael as looking relaxed. But then he turned over and placed his face
in the water and exhaled bubbles. Kara asked a swimmer in the next lane
to tap his shoulder to see if he was OK and quickly learned that he was
not. She entered the water with her rescue tube, performed a passive
victim rear approach and brought him to the side of the pool. She then

screamed "HELP!"

It is just amazing how many people, precautions and much equipment we
had in place to handle these types of emergencies. When Kara yelled
"HELP" Pool Operator Matt Rothrock, hit a "panic button" we installed
pool-side not only to hasten the 9-1-1 response but to activate a loud
alarm throughout the multi-pool facility.

Lifeguard instructor and
graduate student Mark Christiansen heard Kara yell help from his office
on the third floor. As he raced down the stairs to pool he made sure to
yell for me. I was on my way out the door because of the loud alarm.
On his way, Mark grabbed the AED and the 02 and bag valve mask.
Lifeguard Brandon Heide was rotating in the pools and was actually going

to replace Kara observed the scenario and started preparing the AED.

Megan Warley cleared her pool, the deep water competition pool and
grabbed the 02 and bag valve mask. I jumped into the pool with my
clothes on and assisted Kara, who clearly stated "I have no breathing or
heart beat."

We quickly placed Michael on the backboard and slid him out of the pool. As I dried off Michael with a towel
lifeguards and equipment were put into place. Mark Christinasen cooly,
calmly and loudly coordinated everyone's efforts and it was so well
choreographed it seemed to me to be like a safety demonstration.

I honestly don't know if a E.R. staff would have responded as efficiently.
Mark counted out his thirty compressions while Meghan squeezed in two
breaths. The AED called for "NO SHOCK" twice prior to para-medics
coming and once more before they placed Michael in the ambulance.
Amazingly, Michael had no water in his nose, mouth, or airway, nor was
there any vomitus. Kara responded so quickly that she did not allow any

water to invade Michaels airways.

Although Michael was already turning blue in the water, in seconds the
lifeguards had his color back on the pool deck. Michael displayed two
to three agonal breaths as we prepared to resuscitate him but we
continued to work on him. We did notice a paced-maker under his skin on

his left clavicle.

As soon as the paramedics left with Michael we had counselors come to
the Natatorium and provide emotional support to my lifeguards. I did
not take the time to consider counseling because I thought I was
handling the situation quite well. Driving home after work, I broke
down behind the wheel of my care and caused a three car accident. The
breakdown was more of joy rather than sadness because my staff responded

so quickly and professionally.

I travel a lot to preach water safety and as I try to get back now to
Penn State from Kansas City in a snow storm I'm haunted by a myriad of

negative thoughts:

The lifeguards reviewed their resuscitation skills late Sunday night
just prior to Michaels death early Monday morning. What if we did not

have the in-service or the lifeguards did not show???

What if Kara did not see or ignored Michael "relaxing"?

What if Mark Christiansen was not there or did not hear Kara scream?

What if I was not there?

What if Michael chose to swim in one of our two deep water pools rather
than our shallow water pool? Would he have sunk to the bottom before

Kara noticed?

What if we were dealing with a 9-1-1 phone without the alarm system

rather than a quick and simple button that goes directly to 9-1-1?

The Coroner quickly ruled Michaels death as a massive, sudden heart
attack but my questions continue to surface. Although my lifeguard were
better than good, they were great, will they do as well the next time?
Will lightning strike twice? Part of me feels immense relief, the other

experiences fear and doubt.

The McCoy Natatoirum staff will meet again this week to discuss and
review what went right and what could have gone wrong. That's all we

can do...