Good reminder that drowning looks very different in real life than it does in the movies! It’s never splashing and gasping, always mouth level or just above water line, dipping under and coming back up, too tired to flail or yell for help.
Yep! It’s scary how calm a drowning person can seem (as in not flailing or splashing). It’s also scary how they can also start to panic when you’re rescuing them.
I was a lifeguard for years, but my scariest rescue was when I was at the beach with my friend. She told me she would stay in shallow water while I jumped off a nearby pier, but while I was making sure it was safe to jump, I spotted her in deep water. She wasn’t flailing, but had clearly been swept by a current and was barely above water (like this girl in the video). I dove in to get her, but didn’t have any rescue gear for her to hold onto. Once I got to her, she immediately tried to climb up my body and it’s like her brain was in full panic mode. She wasn’t able to understand that she was putting both of us in danger. We were in deep water with a very strong current.
Thankfully, I was also a competitive swimmer, so I was strong and I was able to get her back to safety. But I came out of that bruised and shaken. I still feel like I’m really lucky we came out of that alive.
Fun fact when I was in the military I was doing training with and combat search and rescue divers and when I was in the water to be "rescued" one of my instructions was to try to kill my rescuer. Our instructor said it's super common for someone to panic and attack their rescuer so I literally had to try to attack him and hold him underwater. I did not succeed.
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u/BenNHairy420 8d ago
Good reminder that drowning looks very different in real life than it does in the movies! It’s never splashing and gasping, always mouth level or just above water line, dipping under and coming back up, too tired to flail or yell for help.
What a great rescue!