Another callout but not a good ending

[Gary D.]

It's almost midnight and I just got home after recovering and doing CPR on a 14 year old.

I have to change and get to work so I'll post the details later. Doing another dive on the scene at 0600.

This job sucks.

Gary D.

 

[Snowbear]

This job sucks.

But you are appreciated for doing it.

 

[Deep Lake]

Well here itis midnight and I too just got home from a call out. Unfortuneately we were not able to recover the body due to swift current. So here I sit trying to unwind my mind so that I can crawl into bed with my wife. Some nights just plain suck.

 

[Gary D.]

On Sunday 062704 the pager went off at 1946 hours. The message, “Dive team call out missing 14yoa male at Beaver Bay swim area, Farragut state Park”.

I was out the door and en-route at 1947.

The trip consisted of all 2-lane roads with heavy traffic due to the Ironman going on. Most of the traffic was cooperative with just a couple of jerks that didn’t know what the red and blue lights were for. They will receive tickets by mail.

At 2000 hours I’m about a mile out, after covering the 22 miles from home, when the Sgt. who is team member, calls for medical to expedite. That could only mean one thing and it isn’t good.

I get on scene, grab my “Laerdal CPR Pocket-Mask” and run the 200 yards to the actual scene on the beach. The Sgt. and one of the shift deputies are just positioning the boy’s body on the shore to begin CPR. The Sgt. had seen the submerged boy from the top of the hill in the clear waters of the swim area. He ran down the hill and dove in without removing any of his 40+ pounds of duty gear and recovered the boy.

I took the breaths position while the Sgt. did compressions. I used the shift deputy to hold an open airway as I was having trouble keeping a seal with the mask. His vomiting made things slippery but with two of us we got a good seal and kept the air in his lungs.

It was around12 minutes later when Medical and Fire arrived and took over CPR. They worked on the boy for over an hour. The chopper had landed on the other side of the swim area and the flight crew assisted working on him for roughly another hour. During this time I’m with the Grandparents, Parents and two sisters, 4 and 12.

We learned that they had been out tubing all day and had beached the boat at the swim area for a rest. The 12-year-old sister wanted to go swimming with her brother but he said he didn’t want to. The last time anyone saw him was going to the restrooms on top of the hill about a hundred yards away.

The closest time frame we can get is he was submerged somewhere around two plus hours.

This is going to be very hard on the family as they are life long residence of the area and live close to the accident scene.

I will do a follow up dive at 0600 hours. I will be doing a scene search to see what can be found if anything.

I looked that boy directly in the face for 10-12 minutes and I can’t tell you what color his hair is and even if my life depended on it I could not describe him. I guess the safety valve is working.

This job still sucks.

Here is the location of the swim area. It is the light colored water protected on three sides. http://terraserver.microsoft.com/image.aspx?t=1&s=11&x=1330&y=13277&z=11&w=1
You can zoom out and see the entire 94,000 acre lake.

Gary D.

 

[Boater Dan]

Gary:

How deep is the swim area? Is it a life guarded area or just the place where people swim? Can anyone say LIFE JACKET?

Hang in there! You know you do it because you care! If you didn't, you would not have become a police officer in the first place! Keep trying!

Dan

 

[WreckWriter]

I also lost one yesterday, car wreck, not dive accident. I'm now 0 for 3 on CPR.

WW

 

[Gary D.]

The Swim area is the parks official swim area. It is clearly posted, several times "NO LIFEGUARDS ON DUTY SWIM AT YOUR OWN RISK".

The area is 420' long by 182' wide and max depth is 10'.

The boy was 198' from the lake opening, 32'7" from shore in 3'6" of crystal clear water. Water temp was 60-65 degrees.

I dove every inch of the area this morning. I could see exactly where he dropped and every foot print from the Sgt..

There was nothing but good clean sand with no debris. But something happened to cause his death.

The patrol Deputy that was with us is not doing good at all. He has been around a lot of death but this is his first hands on drowning and it had to be a kid to boot. At my recomendation he is on at least a week of Admin Leave and will get all the help he needs.

Our LT said to me last night, " I know your OK this is the 105 I've been on with you, By the way, ARE YOU OK?" I asured him I was and I would deal with it.

This job still sucks.

Gary D.

PS: Trying a new sleep remedy.

Peanut butter and banana with a shot of rum.

Isn’t bad at all.

 

[Fitzy]

The Swim area is the parks official swim area. It is clearly posted, several times "NO LIFEGUARDS ON DUTY SWIM AT YOUR OWN RISK".

The area is 420' long by 182' wide and max depth is 10'.

The boy was 198' from the lake opening, 32'7" from shore in 3'6" of crystal clear water. Water temp was 60-65 degrees.

I dove every inch of the area this morning. I could see exactly where he dropped and every foot print from the Sgt..

There was nothing but good clean sand with no debris. But something happened to cause his death.

The patrol Deputy that was with us is not doing good at all. He has been around a lot of death but this is his first hands on drowning and it had to be a kid to boot. At my recomendation he is on at least a week of Admin Leave and will get all the help he needs.

Our LT said to me last night, " I know your OK this is the 105 I've been on with you, By the way, ARE YOU OK?" I asured him I was and I would deal with it.

This job still sucks.

Gary D.

PS: Trying a new sleep remedy.

Peanut butter and banana with a shot of rum.

Isn’t bad at all.

Giday,
I have recently began using this site to learn more about diving. I just read your post and it gave me a serious reality check. I have two sons 20 and 18. I cant begin to think what it would be like to have to deal with what you sound like you face on a regular basis. All I'd like to say is "Thankyou" for doing what you do. You do a very difficult job, but im sure noone knows how difficult. I havent read posts like this before and i was a bit taken aback. Sounds like you have some mates that deal with the same issues as you do by the responses you received to your post about the young 14 yr old boy. Keep up the fantstic work. All you dive rescue guys. And i hope the rums may help you sleep and ease the memories you must struggle to forget.

MY Best wishes.

 

[BigJetDriver]

I also lost one yesterday, car wreck, not dive accident. I'm now 0 for 3 on CPR.

WW

Wreckwriter,

Please don't feel badly about your results. As an American Heart Instructor Trainer who has an SO who is American Heart Faculty, I can tell you that, unfortunately, the losses outnumber the saves by a fair margin. We always caution the instructors to discuss this with their students to try to protect them from over-optimistic expectations. When it happens, the one save out of many makes all of the effort worthwhile.

The really important thing is that you had the knowledge, and the willingness to TRY. God bless you, both for caring, and for trying.

BJD

 

[Queen]

This job still sucks.

Gary D.

PS: Trying a new sleep remedy.

Peanut butter and banana with a shot of rum.

Isn’t bad at all.

Hi Gary,

Just a tip from someone who USED to do the job...when the order of your remedy changes (shots first or only) walk away. I appreciate the pain you're feeling and can say I waited too long after the remedy stopped including a sandwich to quit. It's a miserable, hard, painful job with infrequent bright spots. Do it for a time then let someone else do it so it won't eat you up. I stopped diving for a long time time afterwards as I had lost my joy for the sport (too many nasty memories) but now it's better and the memories are much dimmer - that happens but it takes time.

Don't mean to be a downer but wanted you to know you're not alone.