A drowning man was saved in Surrey last week thanks to a 19-year-old off-duty lifeguard, according to the Crescent Beach Life Guarding Corporation (CBLG).
CBLG lifeguards are on duty from 11 am to 7 pm in a roped-off patrolled area daily.
But at around 7:30 pm on Tuesday, beachgoers saw a man “slowly slapping the water awkwardly and silently coming up for air.”
He became unconscious and was dragged onto the shore. Then, 19-year-old off-duty lifeguard Emma Baecker, who was coaching a paddleboard lesson nearby on the dock, swam over to help.
She identified herself as a lifeguard and led the rescue effort. She started doing chest compressions on the man, who at one point was foaming at the mouth and then was revived “only to stumble back into the water again” later, said CBLG in a release.
The area where the man almost drowned on Aug. 16 when lifeguards were not patrolling.
Local firefighters arrived, and the man was transported to the hospital. He was discharged days later.
Baecker is in her second year of guarding at Crescent Beach and said that the incident proves that the swimming area can be dangerous when it’s unguarded at night and in the early morning because the sea floor drops off into the nearby boat channel suddenly.
“There is often a fierce ocean current that brings the tide in and out of Boundary Bay twice each day,” she said in a CBLG release.
Katie Brook, who helped drag the man out of the water, said that it was hard for anyone watching from the shore to tell that the man was drowning at first.
“I probably had an unrealistic conception of what drowning looked like. Part of me thought they’d be screaming or calling for help. I would have thought that it would look more frantic, and that’s why we didn’t think he was drowning. It almost looked like some strange creative exercise,” she told the CBLG.
According to Brook, Baecker’s leadership and expertise helped to save the victim’s life.
“She did an excellent job in that situation,” Brook told the CBLG. “She obviously knew what she was doing and went through the steps.”
So far this summer, CBLG has pulled nine people out of the water.
According to Baecker, if you’re ever unsure about someone’s safety in the water, approach them as soon as possible. “Just ask them, ‘Hey, are you doing good?'”