Disaster in the pool

By Lawrence Powell

Spectator

NovaNewsNow.com

Being a lifeguard isn't about soaking up the sun and looking Baywatch glamorous. In fact the responsibilities are many and the training to get to the big chair is long and arduous, taking years to accomplish.

At the Lawrencetown Pool, Ashley Charlton and her crew of lifeguards are vigilant, trained professionals who can handle just about any life and death situation in or out of the pool.

"We're all trained first responders," Charlton said Tuesday, minutes before she and her fellow workers had to prove their abilities. "We're responsible for anything in the water or around the pool."

MOCK DISASTER

Up in the chair, Charlton suddenly gives three sharp blasts on the whistle and motions to clear the pool. Half a dozen swimmers head for the deck, but one swimmer remains, floating face down. Charlton is off the chair and slipping into the water before the last swimmer exits the pool. With a few quick strokes she's beside Alexa Cress, flips her over and keeps her head out of the water.

Morgan Illsley, a bronze level swimmer, is quickly at Charlton's side to help, and lifeguard Meghan Beals is in the water to assist as well. With Beals holding the victim's head and Illsley supporting her body, Charlton gets out of the pool and grabs a backboard which the three carefully slide under Cress. Strapped to the board, Cress is floated to the pool edge and lifted out.

Cress isn't breathing and there's no pulse, so Charlton starts CPR chest compressions while Beals administers mouth-to-mouth through a mask. The girls are precise and professional and after a few minutes switch roles. Lifeguard Courtney Shaw, meantime, dons rubber gloves and checks Cress for injuries.

THEY DON'T STOP

About six minutes have gone by, but there are no signs of life. Charlton and Beals keep going, waiting for the sound of sirens and the arrival of paramedics. Shaw keeps checking for a pulse and unfolds a blanket and covers Cress to prevent shock.

Around the pool deck bronze level swimmer Marlee Charlton does crowd control and lifeguard Nick Stewart helps out where needed.

Finally they hear the sirens, but they keep administer CPR as the Lawrencetown Volunteer Fire Department arrives with its rescue truck and three members. Unfortunately, EHS was unable to take part in the mock disaster, so firefighter Travis Beals plays both the part of a firefighter and a trained paramedic. He applies a blood pressure cuff, uses a stethoscope to check for a pulse, and shows the lifeguards how EHS would have supplied oxygen and hooked Cress up to a defibrillator to check vitals and possibly administer shock to start her heart.

In the end, the lifeguards and firefighters Travis Beals, Mike Stoddart, and Mike Gillespie carried Cress from the pool deck to where in real life, an ambulance would have been waiting.

PROMOTING SWIMMING

"We wanted to promote water safety and demonstrate the responsibilities lifeguards carry on a day-to-day basis," Charlton said.

Among their many duties are preventing accidents and promoting swimming and the importance of knowing how to swim. But their training includes how to administer CPR, deal with possible spinal injuries (such as Cress might have suffered), and electrocution.

Firefighters, like lifeguards, are trained first responders, but are limited to administering first aid only. But as Tuesday's mock disaster proved, that is often enough to make the difference between life and death.

As Stoddart said, lifeguards or firefighters would keep working and doing CPR until the paramedics arrive.

"They wouldn't stop," he said.