Feature/General
Alive & Kicking
By Blair Rivkin
May/June 2008

“I know it was the first week of June. It was 1984,” my mother says. “People need to know how real it is, and how it can happen to anyone. “

It was real.
The first week of June in 1984, I became a “near drowning” statistic in the swimming pool at my childhood home. I was almost 3 years old. The story has been told many times, and the bits and pieces of what I know are from the perspective of those who remember it.

My brother was a newborn, and my mother was exhausted from running after the precocious child that I was and caring for her baby. It was a hot day, and I wanted to swim. Mom came out to sit on the poolside patio along with an older girl who sometimes watched me. With my brother swaying calmly in his swing, and a moment of peace and quiet, Mom drifted into sleep.

The older girl dressed me in my swimsuit, and then, she left.

When my mother woke, I was floating, face down, in the pool. “‘Oh, God. Help me,’ was the first thought that I had,” she says. She has always told me that she has no idea how long I was in the water. From the research that she did after “the pool accident,” she believes that I was in for quite awhile because of my body’s position in the water.

“You were in a coma from the time I pulled you out of the pool,” she says. “You were so heavy.” At the emergency room, Mom said that each time the doctors came out to report on my status, their eyes seemed to fill with increasing pity. The decision was made to airlift me to Egleston Children’s Hospital. The doctors suggested that Mom take a sedative, but she refused. “I knew what they meant.” The prognosis became this: if I survived, there would be extensive and unrecoverable brain damage.
The doctors and nurses who sadly sent my parents away to that cold waiting room at the hospital and cared for me said, “It’s a miracle.” By the will of God, I woke up, the tubes and wires still enveloping my tiny body.

As soon as I came home from the hospital, my father put me back in the water. Many years later, I still love the water. If there is a pool, a lake, an ocean or even a bathtub, I am in it. And there were never any signs of brain damage. It’s almost as though it never happened.

The heat and humidity of a summer in Athens will drive many to any body of water they can find. You are certainly the envy of the neighborhood and your child’s friends if you have a swimming pool. But having a pool requires one very basic responsibility – know CPR.

Even though my mother said that it had been years since she had taken her CPR training, somehow, those instincts came back to her when she needed them the most. Take a CPR course. You don’t have to become a certified lifeguard, but if you own a pool, it IS your responsibility to know the basics, at the very least. Check the local papers for a listing of course offerings in town and at UGA. They are often relatively inexpensive and convenient to most people’s schedules.

Shortly after the accident, my parents purchased a pool alarm, a device that can be found at most pool supply stores. Alarms such as this float inside the pool and when an unusual motion is detected, such as a pet or child falling in abruptly, an noise is sounded. They do sometimes go off “if the wind blows too hard,” but those little false alarms are well worth it, not only to keep kids safe, but also the beloved family dog or even confused wild animals who wander into the pool area.

Pool parties are a great way to stay cool and let your kids socialize during the long and tedious summer months. Many games are played in the water, but don’t let pool games get too rough. There are so many times that I have seen kids get pushed under water, or their heads held under during play wrestling matches. Even if your child is an excellent swimmer, the reaction is unpredictable – a flash of panic could overcome them while being held under like this. Keep an eye on such “games.” Even if it seems innocent enough, in this case, being better safe than sorry is more than just a cliché.

On a similar note, it’s a good idea to designate parental “lifeguards,” but only those people you trust, and those who fully understand what you’re asking of them during parties. Switch out every half hour or so to keep everyone fresh and alert, and to let each other mingle or grab some barbecue.

“I think that the role of parents has to be talked about over and over,” Mom emphasizes. She says that she and my father have seen it so many times: “parents get to talking, they start socializing and they forget to watch their kids at all times.” She stresses that parents can’t rely on other people to watch their children in the water. “They just don’t.” It takes only a second or two for trouble to begin. And the consequence is not always death: “Even if you didn’t die, there was the likelihood that you would be in a vegetative state for the rest of your life,” Mom continues on the phone. “I would get so upset with the people at the hospital who would say to us, ‘Well, maybe it’s better for her to die if she’s going to be a vegetable.’”

Don’t believe that you’re immune to tragedy if you don’t have a swimming pool, or if you don’t visit lakes, oceans or ponds. Children can drown in the bathtub, in the kitchen sink, even in a toilet. The Mayo Clinic has reported that babies can drown in 1 inch of water, and that even a bucket filled with rain during a storm can pose a threat. The key advice that the experts will give, and that my mother emphatically repeats is to keep an eye on your child for every split-second when there is water involved.

It’s never too early to begin teaching water safety. For example, tell your kids that if a toy gets dropped in a bucket or toilet, always let Mom or Dad fish it out for them. Never leave children unattended in the bathtub. Swimming lessons are offered for all age and skill levels.

Parents may say, “This is all common sense. I would never leave my baby alone in a bathtub. I would never let them swim without being right there to watch every stroke.”

My parents said the same thing. But they were forced to realize that it could happen so quickly, so unexpectedly and even to the most cautious of adults.

With yet another scorching summer season upon us, elevate the caution that you already have as your kids beg to jump into the nearest neighborhood pool, to soak their feet in a stream or take a dip into the creek behind the house.

“It’s one of those things where you really do say, ‘Oh, it will never happen to me,’” Mom ponders over the phone. “But, it does.”

Blair Rivkin is the Managing Editor of Athena and Athens Parent Magazines. She lives with her husband, Evgeny and their three dogs, Annabel, Arta and Percy.