An Intense Day at the Beach

It was supposed to be a nice relaxing day to enjoy each others company and watch the baby play in the water. We headed out to the new pool area in Lakewood Park where we planned on meeting up with my folks and a few good friends. Such is my luck, the pool was closed! So we decided to venture on to the beach in North Fort Pierce. It was a nice day and we didn't want it to go to waste.

Once we got to the beach we settled in a nice spot near the inlet. I played in the sand with the baby until he got up and started to make his way down to the water. The conditions were good for him: low tide and plenty of area for him to play in barely ankle deep water. He was having a great time. After a short time our good friends found us and we settled into a few chairs at the edge of the water. Shortly after my folks also arrived.

We were all enjoying a nice day together. The water was nice and warm with some small cooler waves making their way towards the shore. I waded out in the water and couldn't believe how far I could while still standing in waist level water. I was fairly close to a few surfers and body borders waiting for a wave (which were small and gentle, coming at a pretty consistent pace) and decided to bend down to wet my hair and head back up to the beach.

The baby was having a ball wandering around at the waters edge and his gradma was enjoying following him around.

Towards the end of the day a friend of our good friends showed up to finish out the beach day with us. She positioned her chair next to ours and after introductions were made and small talk was done she decided to go for a swim with one of our good friends and my father. She said how much she enjoyed the water and swimming in the ocean.

The rest of us stayed near the waters edge chatting and soaking up the sun. Then the alarms went off...

I was standing facing the water when I noticed a woman quickly coming towards us with an alarmed expression pointing towards the water. When I finally heard her say she didn't have her phone and to call 9-1-1 I quickly realized the day just went from good to bad. I motioned for Dave to get up and get his phone. We scanned the water and saw our friend out in waist deep water supporting another person floating in the water. Dave started to reach for his phone and call 9-1-1 and then like a switch went off I realized not only was this the woman who had just recently joined us at the beach but she was in big trouble.

I rushed out to the water to help the others pull her to shore while Dave was conveying our emergency to the dispatcher on the phone. Once we got her on shore we realized the seriousness of the situation. We were feeling around for a pulse and turning her to the side in an effort to clear the salt water from her mouth and airway. Time was standing still.

I kept saying over and over "should I do some rescue breaths? let's start CPR!". There was concern from others and (what felt like finally) when everyone realized it would take paramedics some time to get here and we needed to react we moved into CPR mode. I kept asking if anyone was a nurse. It had been three years since I took CPR certification classes and in all the hustle I couldn't remember the compression to breathing ratio.

My husband, a police officer and a former paramedic knelt down next to me to start compressions while I waited for my que to "breath". Eventually a woman came over identifying herself as a nurse and helped talk us through CPR. After a while when Dave was fatiguing another man kindly took over chest compressions while I continued mouth to mouth.
We continued CPR for what seemed like forever until the paramedics arrived and took over.

The purpose of my posting this experience is two-fold:
1: Please keep this woman in your prayers as she continues to fight for her life.
2: Please consider taking a CPR class

Once the woman had been transported and things were calming down a few people approached to say good-job to us but my first response was that I felt it my duty as a fellow human being to help this woman and I would hope someone would do the same for me and my loved ones. This woman was somebody's daugher, sister, mother, friend and if it were my daughter, sister, mother, friend I would hope others would offer the same unquestioning help.
I can tell you for sure without having ever taken a CPR class I definitely wouldn't have been as prepared to help. In fact one of the first things I did this morning was register to take another CPR class (which by the way not only gives you instruction on how to perform CPR but also how to help someone in any type of first-responder situation) and from now on I plan on keeping up-to-date with this.

I strongly encourage everyone to do the same. Things can happen in an instant when you are least expecting it. I know for me, I would like to walk away from the situation knowing I did everything in my power that I could to help this person, including being prepared for a situation like this as much as one can be.