churninbutter
churninbutter t1_iwezp39 wrote
Reply to comment by bsloss in TIL about Deaf lifeguard Leroy Colombo, who overcame childhood paralysis through swimming and saved a record-breaking 900+ lives during his career. His swimming talent and use of sight rather than sound to identify drowning swimmers allowed him to save people other lifeguards would have missed. by lemontreelemur
I do appreciate you saying that, cause even though it’s been like a decade it’s always kinda stuck with me as like a “woah” moment. Really drove home just how silent drowning is
churninbutter t1_iwev2v5 wrote
Reply to comment by SocalPizza in TIL about Deaf lifeguard Leroy Colombo, who overcame childhood paralysis through swimming and saved a record-breaking 900+ lives during his career. His swimming talent and use of sight rather than sound to identify drowning swimmers allowed him to save people other lifeguards would have missed. by lemontreelemur
Yup. I was a lifeguard at a Boy Scout camp, and was up early for a 1 mile swim at the choke point of the pool we had (iirc it was like 25 yards long but had this narrow section in the middle that I was stationed in. It was a very long time ago so could be wrong on the length though). I was dutifully scanning the field of swimmers when another lifeguard on the other side of the choke point yelled my name and pointed basically to my feet. A kid not 2 feet away from the side of the pool, and honestly just inside my scan zone, was struggling to stay up and made ABSOLUTELY ZERO NOISE. It was shocking, and I basically threw the donut straight down on his head. The fact I missed someone in trouble 2 feet away from me kinda fucked me up for a bit, but what I took away from it was that someone drowning makes literally zero noise. None. Zip. Zilch. It was so crazy to me that I could have almost grabbed this person but they never said ANYTHING. It was all good because we designed our lifeguard stations with that in mind, but it was still wild to me.
churninbutter t1_iwfkbzq wrote
Reply to comment by boricimo in TIL about Deaf lifeguard Leroy Colombo, who overcame childhood paralysis through swimming and saved a record-breaking 900+ lives during his career. His swimming talent and use of sight rather than sound to identify drowning swimmers allowed him to save people other lifeguards would have missed. by lemontreelemur
No, it was like he couldn’t get his hands above the water. Like take every image you’ve ever had about someone drowning and throw it away. It was nuts how quiet it was. Hypothetically if he was the only one in the pool and the same situation happened if you were facing the other way you would have no idea something was wrong