I went to the pool the other day and I saw a man who had to be atleast 400 lbs, I don’t think I am exagerrating, anyway he was huge but most of the lifeguards were short little females and the few guys they had were really skinny, if a kid is drowning that is pretty easy but what if this guy decided to go in the deep end how would the lifeguards save him…would it be a team effort? What would they do?
Certified (small female) Lifeguard checking in. It is possible to get someone significantly larger than you out of a deep area (with no shallow areas to go to) and it involves swimming the person over to the edge and putting their arm on the shore, then a little more, etc. etc. It’s painstakingly time consuming and will completely scratch up their chest, but it’s better than drowning. It is also a part of the certification test.
Another method is to swim them to a shallow area where you can stand (even if they can’t) and keep their head above water (and possibly their neck motionless, if necessary) until you can get assistance to get them out and/or backboard them in the water with help.
Finally, we carry those big plastic orange things for a reason. When someone is drowning or fighting to stay above water, they will grab on to you and take you with them in their panicked state. As a lifeguard, my first duty is to keep myself alive when attempting to rescue someone and will hit you with the “rescue can” to subdue and possibly knock you out in order to save you.
Thanks…I didn’t know that those orange things were also for knocking people out…learning something new every day.
Also, if someone that large needs to be rescued, chances are most of that weight is fat. Fat is much more buoyant than lean body mass (muscles, bones, etc…), so it probably wouldn’t be that hard to keep them afloat. It might be more difficult to get them out of the pool, but as mentioned above you can get help with that.
Damn! I’ve been watching “BAYWATCH” too long! I thought all female lifeguards were blonde hotties with enormous boobs! And, why to female lifeguards have to wear those dorky tank suits? Bikinis would be so much better for the beache’s image.
You would laugh to see what passes for lifeguards at OLD ORCHARD BEACH (ME)…what a bunch of losers! Of course, they don’t have much to do…the water temp. is about 48 F! :smack:
Well, I’m now a 6’0" male, but I took my classes when I was 14 and 5’5", 120 lbs.
One of my final tests was to solo rescue my head instructor from the pool. He was 5’10" and weighed nearly 350 lbs.
It took nearly 1/2 hour to get him to the side, and out of the pool; including simulated mouth to mouth, backboarding and transport.
I slept for nearly 6 hours after that class. It was a LOT of work.
I’m an ex-qualified but now lapsed lifeguard. I spent some years as a teenager as a lifeguard at the school pool.
In any situation where someone is in trouble in the water the very last option is to jump into the water and try to wrestle them onto the shore/poolside. Pools will have ropes, buoys and poles for exactly this purpose, moving a 400lb person who’s holding onto a rope while you’re standing on the shore is actually relatively easy with any training. Getting such a person onto the poolside will generally be a two person job if the pool is too deep to stand in.
That said, assuming you have to rescue said individual by being in the water with him, provided he’s in any way rational it should be ok. As others have noted fat floats and while progress will be slow it’s not too risky. If the gentleman in question is panicking it would be a lot more difficult. It is however my experience that heavily muscled people with low body fat are a lot more difficult, even if they weigh half as much. That said I’ve been lucky in that I’ve never had to perform anything like a real life panic situation in open water (or even worse a high diving accident, although I’ve done the training for that) so if anyone who has actually worked in those situations contradicts me I’ll happily bow to their wisdom
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Mr. Hooper. Attach the end of this line to the first keg. Better get a good shot at that porker’s head! You clearing the barrel? Hooper?! Tie it up will ya?!
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:: wanders off to search for an “Ask the lifeguard” and “Ask the fireman” thread ::
TeenSthrnAccent Is both Red Cross and BSA certified as a lifeguard. To pass the Red Cross certification test he had to “rescue” his swimming coach who is 350 lbs. and acting panicky and trying to climb up and dunk the “rescuer”. Since the coach is his trainer and his employer, he has a vested interest in making sure the kids can really rescue, so he does not take it easy on them. Especially not the males and his swimmers be they male or female. To pass the BSA certification he had to “rescue” a 300 lb. football player. Both men were over 6 ft. TSA is 5 ft 10 1/2 and 145 lbs. He is also a competitive swimmer.
Additionally, the guards at the individual pools conduct regular “inservice” sessions where they go over any “incidents”, discuss how to establish authority with peers, and practice CPR and lifesaving. The pool inservice sessions can be particularly difficult because the guards are familiar with each other and enjoy making it hard to make a successful practice “save”.
Finally, they also learn and practice two and multiple guard saves. At training nad inservice, they do drills and when an actual save is in progress every guard at the pool has a role, not just the one or two actually making the save. \
Unlike a brawl at the bar where the band keeps playing, and uninvolve patrons keep dancing, when there is an incident pool play and swimming do not continue business as usual. The guard seeing distress blows a specified whistle, another guard watches the guard doing the save and other guards clear the pool and the guard that is off watch calls 911 and then notifies whoever else is supposed to be notified.
I was actually in this situation once when I was swimming across a local pond (1/3 mile across, mebbe?) and I got hailed at the halfway point by a pretty hefty fellow who had bit off more than he could chew. Fortunately it turned out to be about the best situation you could hope for – he was in distress, but not panicking, so I swam over, got him on his back and relaxed and towed him, very slowly, to shore, making calming noises much of the way.
So I guess the first step is to get the victim to calm down. If they’re panicking, or the water is rough, then I think you stop playing the hero and call for backup (if any).
[In high school I worked at a facility with pools plus a river beach (i.e., moving water). I once had to rescue a man significantly larger than I was. (I am under 5’ in shoes, and at the time about 115 lbs.) His raft came untethered while he was asleep, then the raft hit a rock and overturned. Because he was of a flabbier constitution (there really is no delicate way to put that) it was actually a fairly easy rescue - once we calmed him down, we just had him float on his back while we guided him to slower, shallower water.
The “fun” part is always rescuing the athletic guys - the football players who can bench press Volkswagens and don’t have any fat on their bodies. They don’t float well, which makes saves much more difficult and labor intensive. But, as others have said, part of the testing is dealing with rescues on people who are larger than yourself. In the case of EVERY rescue, you should always call for backup.