Responding to an Emergency

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I haven't said much about this until now, but two weeks ago we had an emergency incident at one of the public pools I manage. A patron went into cardiac arrest while swimming laps. Although I can't go into details due to possible future legal action, I can say that the patron was not breathing and had no pulse when my lifeguards pulled him from the water. Through the use of an AED unit and their efforts to perform CPR on the victim, my staff was able to re-establish a pulse. They continued CPR and ventilations until fire rescue and paramedics showed up to take over the scene. Anyway, today the firefighters and paramedics that were on shift the evening of the emergency invited the lifeguards to breakfast at the firehouse. They wanted to thank the lifeguards for their efforts to save a man's life through their actions. At the breakfast the unit commander praised my staff and told them what a good job they did. And it wasn't just feel-good praise he was giving, he backed it up with data and facts. There are several grading systems used by our fire department to rate the effectiveness of the responses of their staff, and he was able to show our lifeguards that through their efforts, the firefighters had scored very high points in their rating system for the emergency response. They wanted the lifeguards to know that they couldn't have achieved such a high rating in this instance if it wasn't for the quick-thinking and actions of our staff. Considering that all eight of the lifeguards involved in the emergency incident were under 18 years of age (including 4 who were under the age of 16), this was important for them to hear. They were very shaken up by the incident, and were second-guessing themselves as to whether they did everything correctly. The breakfast meeting this morning was the opportunity for our fire department to let our lifeguards know they did everything right. I could see the look of relief in all my staff's faces, and it was like a huge weight was lifted off their shoulders. It was nice for my staff to interact with the fire department crew who responded on the day of the emergency. The breakfast meeting was scheduled to last one hour, but three hours later, they were all still interacting with and talking to each other. It was nice that the lifeguards got to eat breakfast, chat with staff from the fire department, and tour the fire station and trucks. One of the topics that was discussed was the fact that no CPR training class, or CPR practice on a manikin/dummy could ever prepare you for what you experience when performing CPR in real life. Which brings me to the question... Have any of you ever had to perform CPR in real life? If so, what was it like, and what was the outcome?