A Child’s Life

I was horrified to read the article about someone suggesting the elimination of lifeguards at the pool (“Lifeguards:  Are They Worth the Risk?” page 2, August 2003 PCA).  Allow me, if you will, to relate a personal experience that changed my attitude and opinion about the value of a lifeguard.

As I stood in the hallway speaking with the club president, I noticed a scurrying around the pool and a lifeless child lying on the deck with a group of parents standing over the child.  I, immediately out of instinct, ran to the pool to find my lifeguard issuing resuscitation to the child.  The three-year-old was blue.  The mom had taken off the floaties, turned to speak to a friend, and the child jumped into the pool.  Not having the floaties to protect her, she sank to the bottom of the lower end.

The child was hospitalized and released the next day and suffered no permanent damage.  Thank God for that lifeguard who pushed herself into the middle of all those adults and performed her duty because the parents were in such a panic that none of them would have been successful in the resuscitation.

This became a big deal in that all of the inept parents criticized the guard for not watching the entire pool.  Perhaps there was some merit to the criticism, but in my mind her ability and aggressiveness saved a life.  To this day, not one of those parents ever said thanks to the lifeguard for saving that child. On the other hand, I never stopped saying thanks to the lifesaver.

My point is:  I would have been devastated if that child would have died.  Never would I have forgiven myself for not providing proper supervision.  A life, to me, is worth so much more than the cost of insurance or the expense of competent lifeguards.  I have never looked at a swimming pool again without remembering that day.

The issue of lightning detectors certainly is a valid comparison from a liability viewpoint, but that issue involves responsible adults who should know when to get out of the rain.  We close swimming pools at the first hint of lightning.  We give the head lifeguard the authority to close the pool when it is unsafe.  By doing away with the lifeguards we lose that authority—and that is unthinkable.