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Grant's eyes snapped up as he heard the two short blasts of a whistle, and the splash that followed a second later. He reflexively threw an arm up to a 90° angle from his side and held it there in the "at attention" sign. He continued scanning his section of the pool and, out of the corner of his eye, noticed the other guards with their arms out too. Good.
Briefly, he glanced over in the direction that the whistle blast had come from. One of his co-workers, Skye, was chest deep in the water of the leisure pool. It was warmer and shallower than the competition pool, mainly for the kids. He saw her approaching the victim, a young boy, maybe 12 years old, and before she even got there, he could tell that the kid had dove in.
"MAJOR!" Skye called as she approached the victim, touching her hand to the back of her neck to indicate a spinal injury. Grant grabbed his whistle and let out one long blast, along with all the other guards. He was closest to the side of the pool that Skye would be bringing the victim out from, so he left the other guards to clear the competition pool and sprang into action. He grabbed the spinal board off the wall and walked quickly over to the leisure pool. He hopped in and brought the board over to Skye. She had the boy in a vice grip and had just rolled him over. Her cheek was pressed against his and she was so low in the water that only her face was peeking out, just like the victims.
"You wanna take over the hold for me and I'll knife the board?" It was phrased as a question, but she was the first responder to this situation, which meant that it was an order. Grant nodded and put one hand on each of the boy's shoulders, squeezing his head with his forearms to keep his spine from shifting. Once he had a firm grip he nodded to Skye, who released the kid from her vice grip. Before she did, Grant noticed her perfect form. Her arm was perfectly centered along the kid's chest, her hand holding his cheekbones firmly without obstructing his airway at all. He was certain that her other arm had been flawlessly aligned down the boys back and her hand firmly holding the boys skull. That boy's spine hadn't shifted at all, not on Skye's watch.
Now that she had her hands free again, Skye pulled the head supports and straps off of the board and set them on the edge of the deck. Then she tilted the board to a 45° angle and slid it under the boy's unconscious body. She grabbed the first strap and attached it firmly across his chest and under his armpits. The second strap followed a moment later, securing his hips to the board. Finally, she put the kid back into a vice grip, this time sandwiching him between the board and her arm, and Grant let go. He grabbed the head support blocks and stuck them onto the board, then did up the head strap over the boy's forehead to keep everything in place. As soon as that was done, Skye had let go once again, and was doing up the last straps around his knees and ankles as they brought him over to the side.
One of the other guards, Antoine, was already waiting. He grabbed the end of the board and he and Ward quickly lifted the boy out of the water and onto the deck. While the boys were doing the lifting, Skye was climbing out of the pool, and the moment that he was out of the water she was already assessing his vitals. She leaned over the boy's face and put her cheek right over his mouth, watching his stomach as she felt for breath. She held the boy's wrist in her hand to feel for a pulse at the same time, not wanting to risk moving his spine to check for a pulse on his neck. The wrist worked just as well, Grant knew, although it was sometimes more difficult to find. Skye knew what she was doing though, and her fingers were in the right place in seconds.
After ten seconds of nothing, she pulled the CPR mask out of her First Aid pack and placed it over the kid's mouth and nose. Grant pulled himself out of the water too and went to the other side of the board, putting his hands in place to do compressions. Skye leaned down and breathed into the mask once, and then a second time a moment later. Each time, Grant saw the boy's chest rise and fall slightly, which was a very good sign. As soon as she had finished the second breath, Grant began the compressions. "One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, seventeen, eighteen, nineteen, twenty, twenty-one, twenty-two, twenty-three, twenty-four, twenty-five, twenty-six, twenty-seven, twenty-eight, twenty-nine, thirty" he breathed, pressing down on the boy's chest with each count. When he reached thirty, Skye leaned down and breathed into the mask twice more, and then Grant began counting again. A few cycles later and Skye was just about to check for vital signs again, when the boy started coughing. Grant quickly grabbed the board and tilted it. The straps were secure and they held the boy in place as the water that he coughed out drained out of the victim's mouth and onto the deck.
When he stopped, Skye checked for vital signs again and sighed in relief as she found both breath and a pulse. "Do we have any friends or family with him yet?" Skye asked Antoine as she and Grant began the secondary assessment.
"Yeah, his older sister is over there with Phil." Skye glanced over and saw a redhead girl, probably about 17 years old, talking to the Aquatic Supervisor. "Do we have a name for this kid? Medical history?"
"Phil's getting that now. But, from all the yelling she was doing as we tried to keep her out of the way, I think the kid's name is Leo."
"Great, well, Leo's got a broken wrist here too" Grant interrupted.
"Doesn't surprise me," Skye replied. "Why, why do people feel the need to dive into the shallow end of the pool? It's written in giant letters everywhere not to do that. People suck."
Grant was just about to agree with her, when the paramedics showed up.
"Spinal injury and broken wrist. He's breathing now but, but vital signs were absent when we pulled him out. Sister's over there" Skye told them. The two men nodded and pulled the spinal board up onto their gurney and wheeled Leo out to the ambulance. Phil walked the girl out to the waiting vehicle, but as they passed the two lifeguards, she wrapped each of them in turn into a big hug.
"Thank you for saving my brother!" She cried, before letting Phil take her outside and then hopping into the ambulance.
"Nice work" Grant said, holding up his hand.
"You too" Skye replied, hitting his hand with her own. "Well, we saved that kid, but now it's our turn to drown. In paperwork…"
"Yep. Incident report forms suck" Grant sighed.
"Better with company though. Go dry off, I'll meet you in the office in 5. I've got a chocolate bar in my locker that's just begging to be shared."