Not sinking...

[azurelunatic]

When we first moved into this apartment complex, Little Fayoumis and I went swimming a lot. First he didn't know how to swim. He gradually learned.

While he was learning, though, he wasn't so good at it. He went under, once, and swallowed water. I was right next to him, and I saw him, and I yanked him right out before he had time to be more than startled and a little scared, and I made sure he was OK, and he went right back to learning how to swim, because I hadn't panicked...

I don't think he'll ever know, until he reads this, how close he came to drowning.

Comments

[musyc]

Thank GODS you were paying attention. I've been in that situation - as the drowner.

*waves* Hi, I've been legally dead. Explains a lot.

[azurelunatic]

Neep.

I hope someone fished you out *promptly*...

[musyc]

No, not really promptly.

See, what happened was that my girl scout troop went to a local swimming pool. I think I was the only one that didn't know how to swim. I tried to stay in the shallow end, where my feet could touch the bottom. And then the rest of the troop decided to start doing cannonballs. Wave effect shoved me out into the pool.

I couldn't touch bottom. I couldn't reach the woman with her baby who was only five feet from me, her back to me. And I couldn't scream because every time I did, I swallowed water.

Troop leaders did a head count, realized they were one girl scout short, emptied the pool, and saw me on the bottom. I'd been under for three, four minutes. They think I may have hit my head, but I was definitely drowned.

They fished me out, CPR'd me, and got me to the hospital. I remember coming back to myself in the ambulance. Then the ICU in the hospital, where they pumped approximately two gallons of water out of my stomach.

Any wonder I have an extreme fear of getting water up my nose?

[azurelunatic]

Oh my.

Completely understandable.

[iroshi.livejournal.com]

*nod* Grace has gone under while trying to swim before. She was just getting the hang of it, you see, and *could* go for a few feet without any assistance...so she decided to push her floatie ahead of her, to let go of it and swim to it. Got a little too tired, though, and couldn't make it. And I was a good distance from her at the time, so she was under for 5-10 seconds. Much to her credit, though, she didn't panic about it. She *knew* I would be there, and she wasn't in real danger. I got her out, helped her to cough it up, and calm down, and since none of the adults in the situation were panicking --just reassuring her that she was fine, and it was all right, these things happened, we were close and we got her out, and always would-- it was only a few minutes before she went back in. She made sure to keep her floaties closer after that, though. :)

I'm going to make sure all three of the rugrats get actual paid swimming *lessons* this summer, though. Mark's been promising them for years and they never appear. I'm going to pay for the bloody things myself, somewhere near him on Saturdays or evenings, and once they're paid for, he'll feel obligated enough to take them. ^_~

[azurelunatic]

Oh good.

I learned how to swim when I was very small. FatherSir taught me. I've been more or less hyper in the water ever since...