RE: [Paddlewise] Respecting the Sea - a Response to Chris' story

Sorry - it's not the most pleasant of stories so I didn't want to offend
anyone.  Don't read this is you're easily upset.  The short story is that
the victim didn't make it.

It happened up here in VT in Lake Champlain.  My fiancée' and I were at a
picnic onshore and went to try out a See Doo that someone had brought(yes I
know everybody hates those things).  We were out about 2 minutes when we
were waved down by a sailboat.  Everyone aboard only spoke French (and us
only English) but we finally got the point that someone needed help at a
nearby boat.  So we go over to the next boat (a cabin cruiser) and as we
come around the stern we can see that a woman is performing CPR on another
woman with a couple of other by-standers.  Again they're all speaking French
and there is much confusion.  My fiancée' climbed aboard to see if she could
help and I zoomed back to shore (about 200 yards max) to have someone call
an ambulance.  Another guy (Mike) climbs on with me and we go back out to
the boat.  As we pull up we agree that we need to get her ashore so we carry
her off the back and put her in a dingy, tie it to the Sea Doo and begin to
pull her to shore.  The dingy is one of those inflatable types with the
wooden plank seats so it's not the optimum place to perform CPR.  Seated
behind her I could only hold her head and instruct another French speaking
woman on how to perform CPR by using hand signals.

The ambulance was just down the street and was pulling up as we came to the
dock.  Total time between the time we found her until we got her ashore was
less than 5 minutes.  The paramedics continued CPR and tried the defib to no
avail.  We speculated that she had been out there a good 15 to 20 minutes
before we came along.  We never found out what had happened.

I'm sure that we didn't do everything perfectly and I'm sure someone out
there will point this out.  I can however recommend that everyone take the
time to learn CPR, carry some sort of communication device, and try to be
prepared by having safety equipment and the knowledge to use it. 




-----Original Message-----
From: Sandykayak_at_aol.com [mailto:Sandykayak_at_aol.com]
Sent: Wednesday, August 11, 1999 11:27 AM
To: Joe Brzoza; PaddleWise_at_lists.intelenet.net
Subject: Re: [Paddlewise] Respecting the Sea - a Response to Chris'
story


<<<Having taken part in a recent rescue "attempt" I can add that you cannot
take too many precautions.  In my case I happened across a power boat with
an occupant in a medical emergency.  The boat had no means of communication
on board for which to summon for help.  Should they have had a radio or
phone the outcome may have been completely different.>>

So what happened already?? Don't leave us hanging.  Please give us a few
more 
details.

Sandy Kramer
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