Lifeguard: A Short Story

June 19 2014, A day that will forever follow me for the rest of my life. What started as a typical summer day’s work for me at Charlotte Country Club would soon turn into a nightmare that i’ll be forced to think about for eternity. It all started off When I was changing guard stands with two of my fellow lifeguards on duty. Nothing appeared to be out of order at first as I briefly scanned the pool while climbing the five steps to the top of the guard stand, upon reaching the top of the stand I saw a shadow that appeared to be on the bottom of the pool. I called out to the guard on the stand before me and asked him about it, he said “that the shadow was caused by ripples on the pool’s surface due to the wind” it was a fairly windy day so I
I then attempted to open my hipsack as my hands were trembling vigorously from my spike in adrenaline causing me to fumble with the zipper to get my CPR mask. While this was going on the other lifeguard was checking the young boy’s pulse and seeing if he was breathing, he began to panic As he screamed to me “ HE’S NOT BREATHING HE’S NOT BREATHING WE NEED TO START NOW.” Hearing this only made the struggle to put the rebreather mask on the child that much worse. We then were able start CPR with my partner doing the rescue breaths and myself doing the chest compressions. The process of giving chest compressions has to be the most gut-wrenching experience in the world,seeming to only get more excruciating, with every single compression. the feeling of ribs breaking is something that i’ll never forget.
Once we were able to get into a rhythm with CPR I began to look around and I noticed the third lifeguard coming running at us with a woman who looked very distraught who I could only assume was the young boy’s mother. Her hysteria and everyone running around the pool made performing CPR a very difficult task. This is when it really hit me, someone's child's life is in hands of my fellow lifeguards and I, until the paramedics arrive we are this young boys only hope. Eventually after what seems to be an eternity we can hear the sirens from an ambulance
Shortly after the arrival of the paramedics the police showed up and gathered all of the lifeguards the child's mother and other witnesses to ask us what had happened. This is we found out from the little boys mother that the her son was not able to swim and had briefly disappeared from her sights, and this is when we found him about forty five seconds later in the deep end of the pool. After the paramedics had left the scene with the young kid, and the police had gathered all of the information they needed, all that was left was the us lifeguard and the eerie silence of the pool for us to think about what we had just experienced. Unfortunately this young boy’s life was not able to be revived and the mother of the child and my fellow lifeguards and I have to live with that constant reminder for the rest of our lives. However this brings me to a point that I now feel very adamant about and that is, I believe that all parents should have to put their kids in swimming lessons. This is because even though there maybe lifeguards at the pool it is still impossible for them to keep an eye out for every kid at the pool all of the time. Drowning is a very
Clarke 4 unfortunate and very preventable death and I feel teaching a child to swim could potentially be a lifesaving skill. However with that