rdfs:comment
| - Kelly Martinez posted, It is REALLY scary stuff. After the AOAP Conference in 2012, and many sessions discussing why people are still drowning in lifeguarded facilities when negligence is not a factor, we decided to test our pools this summer. We found that our lifeguards are really good with recognizing and responding to an active or distressed victim, but when tested, our guards rarely recognized a victim that wasn't moving. For a few years now, we have been training dropping silhouettes, Vigilant Voice, Count to 10 and GO, Disappearing Dummies, no long breath holding, etc. so we thought we were pretty safe. Not so!!! We started using a secret victim (not a guard in a red suit) and had them play in the pool for a little while and then float face down (they used a straw to breath so they
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abstract
| - Kelly Martinez posted, It is REALLY scary stuff. After the AOAP Conference in 2012, and many sessions discussing why people are still drowning in lifeguarded facilities when negligence is not a factor, we decided to test our pools this summer. We found that our lifeguards are really good with recognizing and responding to an active or distressed victim, but when tested, our guards rarely recognized a victim that wasn't moving. For a few years now, we have been training dropping silhouettes, Vigilant Voice, Count to 10 and GO, Disappearing Dummies, no long breath holding, etc. so we thought we were pretty safe. Not so!!! We started using a secret victim (not a guard in a red suit) and had them play in the pool for a little while and then float face down (they used a straw to breath so they never lifted or turned their head). The majority of our guards did not realize that there was something wrong. Most of the time the victim was floating for 35-60 seconds and beyond before the guards realized something was wrong (a few times when we tested, the victim was never noticed) The most common response was "I thought they were just playing" or worse, "I didn't notice them". Tom Griffith's Deadly Ds is spot on....Denial, Disbelief, and Delay. You are right... it is happening way more than our profession is admitting or aware of. Now we have to fix it.
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