OC Lifeguards

"Killer Dana Going Off!" The 'Secret Spot' was firing on all cylinders with rooster tails spraying off the waves. Rare sight...Awesome!

#Repost @uslifesaving The USLA hopes you have enjoyed a safe and fun summer. As many of you travel to your favorite beach for Labor Day Weekend, please stay safe. Always swim near a lifeguard and read and obey the signs. Check with the lifeguard regarding daily conditions and if in doubt, don’t go out! Photo Credit: Whitney Keck - Hilton Head, SC... #usla #lifeguardsforlife #swimnearalifeguard #oclifeguards #2020

ESPLANADE CPR ~ 1988 In 1988, I was assigned to the AVE C lifeguard station in Redondo Beach. As I sat in the tower overlooking the beach a local surfer named R...eese Patterson came running up to the station yelling that there was an unconscious person up on the Esplanade, behind the station. I jumped into the truck, lights and sirens blaring and called for back up. When I arrived moments later I found an unconscious male in his mid thirties pulseless and non-breathing. Patrons stood around but no one had checked him to see if he was breathing or had a pulse. He had neither so I initiated CPR until Redondo Beach Fire Dept. Paramedics arrived. L.A. County Lifeguards didn’t have Automatic External Defibrillators [AEDs] at the time. One of the medics who arrived happened to have been one of my instructors from Paramedic Training at Daniel Freeman Hospital. I continued CPR until they hooked the patient up to their manual defibrillator and told me to stop CPR. First shock...no conversion to a spontaneous heartbeat. Second shock...no conversion. Third and last shock per LA County Protocols...no conversion. I looked up at the medics and said, Let’s try one more. We’re not going to kill him! They hit him one more time and with a quick pulse check I felt a pulse!! We put him on oxygen, they started an I.V. and before they loaded him into the rig he started to come around. I followed up with the hospital and he recovered fully. About a year later I got a call from Arizona and it was my patient calling me to thank me for saving his life, not a common occurrence. He had been a detective with some local PD and was out jogging when he collapsed in full cardiac arrest. He not only wanted to thank me but he told me that HE HEARD ME say to try one more defibrillation and that we weren’t going to kill him trying. Hearing is one of the last senses to go... I was blown away. I heard from him periodically over the years, just to touch base and remind me how much he appreciated my efforts. This story doesn’t end here... A couple of days ago I got a FB message from a woman asking if I had been a lifeguard in Redondo Beach around 1988. She saw one of my images, my name triggered a memory and I responded. The woman was the girlfriend of my CPR patient at the time. They dated for a year and eventually married. They had two sons, one is now 26 and the other 29. My patient passed away in 2014. She told me in her message that had it not been for that extra effort she would not have had these two wonderful young men. I was overcome with emotion. She finally had the opportunity to thank me. I am a lifeguard for life.. Photo: With Capt. Jerry Shoemaker at the Ave C Lifeguard Station/1988