Swimmer Screams for Help Before Passing Out in Pool, Hero Gym Employees Save His Life
When you step back and consider it dispassionately, water is both wonderful and terrifying. On one hand, the beauty of big bodies of water has inspired poets and artists through the ages.
On the other hand, the serene surface of a pond or ocean can conceal all sorts of squamous terrors that paddle beneath, and drowning can tragically happen in any number of natural or man-made settings.
The official news service for the London Borough of Hackney reported that 35-year-old Ed Bray was swimming in a public pool in April 2015, just like he normally did, when he suddenly found himself in distress.
Bray described it as being “like a computer when the power cord is pulled.”
Fortunately, a pair of lifeguards pulled his blue, breathless body from the water and performed CPR on him for five minutes until his respiration restarted.
“The lifeguards were absolutely brilliant,” he said, “as were the paramedics and everyone at the Whittington, and I’m incredibly grateful to them all. I’m still a little sore and a little shaken but I’m here to tell the tale and that’s all because of the quick thinking of the lifeguards.”
According to News24, something similar happened to a 33-year-old man in South Africa, Gareth Utton, who was planning to participate in a notoriously difficult Ironman competition.
Part of the challenging race involved a two-kilometer swim. So Utton went to his local Planet Fitness on April 3 and hit the pool hard.
As he finished up his final lap, something terrible happened: A wave of dizziness washed over him.
Realizing he was about to pass out, Utton loosed a shriek before slipping beneath the waters.
Fortunately, a pair of employees heard him.
Karabo Thosago and Brandon Murigagumbo jumped into the pool and dragged him out, and he was eventually taken to the hospital. After a stint there, Utton got the “all clear” from his doctors.
“I am eternally grateful and eternally thankful for what Karabo did,” he said.
“And if it wasn’t for Karabo being there and jumping in and saving me, and Brandon as well, it would have been a completely different story.”
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