Forums > Social Chat > Traumatic event
Login/Join to ParticipateHOP Mad Doctor
13,925 posts
Location: San Francisco, CA, USA
So at the pool where I go to my swim practices, the pool is 35 yards long, but there is a bulkhead that sits across the pool separating the shallowest 10 yards from the deeper 25 yards of competition/training pool. The shallow part is the kiddie pool.
However, in order to give disabled people access to the deeper part of the pool, in lane 6 (one of the end lanes), the bulkhead doesn't quite reach all the way to the wall of the pool and there's a spot big enough for a person to walk through to get from the kiddie pool the main pool.
Today there were children in the kiddie pool and I was swimming in lane 6. Now, I'm a competitive swimmer and I'm quite fast. On top of that, I do proper racing-style flip turns. Because there's only a "half wall" at the end of that lane, space is tight.
Today, a little boy came around the bulkhead just as I was going into a flip. I didn't see him until I had already flipped and my feet were planted on the wall for the push-off, which is when I suddenly stopped in my tracks and popped up to the surface. I didn't kick him, but I can't have missed him by more than a few cm. He was crying, terrified, because I had almost kicked him. And if I had connected solidly with his head, I probably would have snapped his neck. It was a hard set and I was swimming very quickly to make the interval.
I'm still shaking from the whole experience. Here I am training to be a pediatrician and I almost hurt a child. Regardless whether it would have been my fault or not, that was way too close for comfort.
I don't really have a moral or a point for discussion. I just needed to get this off my chest.
-Mike
Certified Mad Doctor and HoP High Priest of Nutella
A buckuht n a hooze! -Valura
912 posts
Location: Cheltenham
Man that's rough... you have my sympathy. Thankfully nothing more serious happened and ... well, maybe you should stick to lanes 1 to 5 in future. Yeesh. And possibly bring up the idea of inserting a gate in the wall? "We have done the impossible and that makes us mighty" - Mal Reynolds
"I can't tell the difference between an electron and a cat" - Brother of a friend
Corporate Circus Arts Entertainer
3,989 posts
Location: Auckland, New Zealand
I'm sorry to hear how stressful that was for you, Lightning.
It's amazing how much fear you can experience imagining that you may have hurt or killed someone completely unexpectedly...
It takes while for the expereince to dull a bit, but they never seem to go away...
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not with cactus
2,052 posts
Location: bristol/ southern eastern devon, United Kingdom
thats not good
you should tell the pool people, what happened so they can make things a little bit more safe.
hope you feel better now
Me train running low on soul coal
They push+pull tactics are driving me loco
They shouldn't do that no no no
Super Gidg!!!!
8,506 posts
Location: Portland Oregon USA
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Ghostbuster
455 posts
Location: York, UK
yeah using the other lanes looks like a good idea in the future
Carpal \'Tunnel
3,252 posts
Location: sheffield, United Kingdom
Quote:
you should tell the pool people, what happened so they can make things a little bit more safe.
If you think it's likely to happen it the future then I reckon you should go through their Health and Safety reporting procedure, and get something in writing. That way they'll be inclined to take it seriously and do something about it.
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Mumma Hen
6,391 posts
Location: Brisbane, Australia
where was the little kids mum or dad? were they not watching him?
sending love to you doc, heal and relax
TAJ "boat mummy." VALURA "yes sweetie you went on a boat, was daddy there with you?" TAJ "no, but monkey on boat" VALURA "well then sweetie, Daddy WAS there with you"
100 characters max...
2,996 posts
Location: Sydney, NSW, Australia
Honey,
.I had a similar experience with a car accident. I had just turned onto a street, which was narrow and had cars parked on either side. There was oncoming traffic and I was driving fairly slow. Suddenly there was a crash and glass everywhere. A woman in a car parked at the side of the street had opened out her car door into the side of my car as I went past. Even at the speed I was going, I bent the door back and smashed the window. If she had opened the door differently and had stuck her arm out, she would have been seriously injured.
All the "what if"s make it quite a scary prospect. It was a day for screaming at inanimate objects.
What this calls for is a special mix of psychology and extreme violence...
HOP Mad Doctor
13,925 posts
Location: San Francisco, CA, USA
Yeah, apparently, the lifeguard watched the whole thing happen and had been yelling at the kid to get back in the kiddie area, but he wasn't listening and the guard couldn't get there fast enough (she was on the other side of the pool).
The concept of an "accident" is a bad event in which nobody did anything wrong, per se.
I also hate swimming in that lane, but all the lanes take turns. It was my lane's week to have that lane. See, it's a swim team, so the swimmers are arrranged by speed and I'm in the "B" lane (the second-fastest).
It's not the first time in history that a child has wandered into the way of something dangerous and heaven knows it probably won't be the last. As anyone who has raised a child to the age of being able to walk can attest, kids tend to do that.
-Mike
Certified Mad Doctor and HoP High Priest of Nutella
A buckuht n a hooze! -Valura
564 posts
Location: Vansterdam
Mike I feel for yah.
I remember when I was first learning to drive I had an scare. was driving down one of the the 4 (I think) streets in my city that the speed limit is 60 km/h instead of the normal 50 km/h. I was with my driving instructor, and we were talking, and joking as we normally did and all of a sudden there was this brown flash and I slammed on the breaks and spun the wheel. Looking over there was a dog and a girl in the middle of the road. The dog had bolted and the girl had followed. If I had have been a millisecond slower I would have hit them both. My driving instructor said she didn't even see them until after I had the brake to the floor. I was quite shaken after that, and to this day I won't do 60 in that part it the road.
In the 60's people took acid to make the world weird, now the world is weird and they take prozac to make it normal again.
2,568 posts
Location: sitting on the step
for lighning 
she who sees from up high smiles
Patrick badger king: *they better hope there's never a jihad on stupidity*
Intrepid Penguin
5,635 posts
Location: Australia
woooo scary.
Not much to say in regards to advice (other than suggesting one of those childproof gates, but for underwater?) Just wanted to give you MANY big squishy type hugs and much love
xoxoxxoxo
Flynter
Currently on the right side up of the world.
Insert Champagne Here
13,215 posts
Location: without class distinction, Australia
s coming your way buddy!!!!!!!! i would have changed ***** to phallus, and claire to petey Petey
Rougie: but that's what I'm doing here
Arnwyn: what letting me adjust myself in your room?..don't you dare quote that on HoP...
Mistress of Pink...Multicoloured
6,140 posts
Location: Over There, United Kingdom
Try not to think of the "what if's" there's nothing you can do now, nothing you could have done then. Just life.
Never pick up a duck in a dungeon...
9,232 posts
Location: NYC, NY, USA
That sucks Mr. Lightning. I'd certainly point my finger at the lifeguard. If, rather than wandering over to your side of the pool, the kid had slipped under and no one was watching it would have been a much more serious event.
Perhaps next time you can remind the life guard to look out for your lane, so you can swim without having to dodge kids.
See, THAT'S why I don't excercise. Cus I don't want to hurt any innocent kids.
Well, shall we go?
Yes, let's go.
[They do not move.]
2,905 posts
Location: San Diego California
Well... dang I never knew you were a swimmer *reminds himself not to trade kicks with Mike*. I know your a bit upset over this, and you probably have every right to be, but man don't think of it as a bad experiance think of it as a good one. Your quick reaction probably saved the life of a kid. That was some darn good luck on your part man. Be proud that you were skillfull enough in what you do to be able to stop and avoid kicking the child.
Swim on man and enjoy.
Some Jarhead last night: "this dumb a$$ thinks hes fireproof"
4,308 posts
Location: York, England
Keep your dream alive
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old hand
899 posts
Location: New York City, USA
I know what its like to have barely averted disaster like this.
Scary stuff.
The best way to look at it is to remember that while you and the kid were both shaken up, NOBODY got hurt.
Raph
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