INDIAN RIVER COUNTY — Quick thinking and training led a team of lifeguards to help save a teenager who suddenly experienced a seizure Sunday while swimming in a county pool.
“Everyone was confident. Nobody had any second thoughts about anything,” said Harrison Wood, one of the lifeguards who quickly rushed to the scene at the Gifford Aquatic Center. “This was the first major water rescue I’ve had. It was definitely a team effort.”
The incident occurred about 4 p.m. Sunday at the center, 4855 43rd Avenue, a sheriff’s report shows. The ordeal lasted about 15 minutes, but felt much longer, Wood said.
Wood was in the break room when he heard another lifeguard blow a whistle three times. Then, Wood knew there was an emergency at the pool.
“A whistle blown three times means we need to call 911 and for everyone to clear the pool,” said Wood, 20, who was working a summer job at the center. “It’s all hands on deck for lifeguards to assist in an emergency situation.”
Wood ran outside and saw his supervisor, Katie Marleau, holding a teenager in the water. The teen was swimming in the pool not far from his grandmother when he had a seizure and went face down in the water, Wood said.
Wood said Marleau jumped in the pool, turned the boy on his back and held his head above water. Marleau stayed with the teen for several minutes before Wood and two other lifeguards, Joe Kolo and Siggy Stenmark, helped to carry him out of the pool.
“He was still seizing and going in and out of consciousness,” Wood said. Stenmark talked to the boy’s family to keep them calm while other lifeguards began performing life-saving efforts.
Wood took his shirt off and put it under the teenager’s head so the boy wouldn’t hurt himself while seizing. When the teenager passed out, lifeguards put a breathing mask over his face, Wood said.
The mask has a tube that is attached to an oxygen tank, Wood said. Marleau also used a sternum rub – raking her knuckles across the teenage boy’s chest to wake him.
An employee in the front office flagged down emergency responders, Wood said. The boy was taken by ambulance to Cleveland Clinic Indian River Hospital, reports show.
The teenager was released from the hospital later that day, Wood said. Training for emergency situations like these helps smooth out the process when a real emergency arises, Wood said.
“We go over all different kinds of scenarios for different situations,” Wood said.
Lifeguards participate in public safety training about three times a month, Wood said. There are about eight lifeguards total who work at the Gifford Aquatic Center.
Becoming a lifeguard
For Wood, becoming a lifeguard is not only rewarding, but personal.
Wood said he was good friends with Jonathan Threewitts, a 17-year-old Vero Beach High School football player who drowned in 2015 while swimming with friends in the ocean near Jaycee Park. The teen’s body washed ashore a few days later near the park, officials said.
Wood became a lifeguard about three years later.
“He was one of the reasons why I became a lifeguard,” said Wood, who played football with Threewitts at Vero high.
Wood, a student at Palm Beach Atlantic University, said he plans to become a firefighter after graduating from college. The lifeguard said he has a passion for helping people.
Value of lifeguard training
Mike Redstone, recreation director for Indian River County Recreation Department, said it’s important for swimmers to be near lifeguards because they are trained professionals. Redstone said the lifeguard training paid off in Sunday’s incident.
“They reacted quickly,” Redstone said. “Everything turned out for the better.”