Kuddos! Huge Kuddos!!!

Kuddos go out to the lifeguard team at Memorial Pool here in town. Yesterday, I took the kids to the pool for the afternoon to swim. It was pretty crowded, and with the Special Olympics in town, it was really crowded, but not unbearable.

The kids were swimming when the lifeguards blew their whisltes and told everyone "Out of the pool. Everyone out now!" That is completely and totally unusual for them. 10 seconds, kid you not, the pools, all 3 of them, were completely empty, except for the young guy the lifegards were pulling out of the water. They cleared out the pools and immediatly the entire team was responding to the guy in trouble.

They pulled the guy out of the water on a body board and started doing CPR on him. Not just mouth-to-mouth, but CPR, compressions on the chest, full-blown CPR. The fire department, the police and the ambulance and EMT's responded. After working on him for 5 or 10 minutes we could see that he was alive and moving and apparently throwing up.

They took him out on a gurney, strapped to a body board with a neck brace. I'm sure a lot of that was normal procedures. The entire pool population watched and waited, and applauded when he left.

Yes, it was scary, and yes the thought crosses your mind, that could have been anyone, including my kids. But in the midst of the drama, there was a sense of awe in watching the lifegard team work together and save a guy's life. You could tell they were well trainied because there was no questioning or second guessing anything... they just jumped in and did their job. Now, if you know public pools and lifeguards, you know that they don't look older than high school/college age kids. And yet, they saved a guys life yesterday.

While you hope to never have to see them in action, it was reassuring to know that they could and would jump into a situation, take charge and save a life.

Kuddo's guys to a job well done!!! We can not say thank you enough.