today is a veryyyyy busy day for us.
we are all sitting back waiting patiently for our next rescue when suddenly harrison notices from in the tower, two people struggling just outside the southern end of the flags. i rush in with reidy following. i shout to reidy that i'll grab the woman and he races to the guy. i approach the woman and pull her up and out of the water and tell her to grab a hold of my board.
but.
she's lifeless.
oh shit. i pull her up as hard as i can and i can tell she's unconscious. "fuck" i say and do three pumps with my arm to signal to the tower that we need a defib. i need help getting this woman on board and there's no one around "HELP" i tell and i see reidy heading over with a man who looks like he's in an alright condition. in seconds reidy helps me get her on the board and i paddle as hard as i can into the shore. i see deano taxing towards me with chappo not far behind and they help me life this woman onto the beach. "CPR" deano yells and chappo starts it. after trying to find a pulse i can't seem to find i unpack the defib and tear he swimsuit off. i dry her body and apply the patches to her chest as they continue cpr. in minutes, the defib goes off and gives us instructions and we continue to give cpr. "keep going" deano says and chappo tells me to take over. i do so and we keep going for a couple of minutes. i swap out with chappo and a crowd starts to form. i look around the beach and... shit. i see that about 30 metres down the beach i see reidy, jesse and kerrbox giving cpr to another man. "fuck" i whisper quietly and help all i can with the oxygen mask.
about 10 minutes later i hear ambulance sirens and then they show up at the beach minutes later. they take over and i explain to one of them what has just happened. they continue asking me questions as the rapidly attend to the woman, still lying lifeless on the sand. i look over at the other man down the beach and it looks like they have got him on his side, meaning he's in recovery position and is probably coughing up water. i see maxi over there and i can tell he's stressing as well.
it's been about 10 minutes, every minute going slower than the last and they still haven't found her pulse. as we hit the 30 minute mark we all discuss and see what our next step is. "she's not coming back, we've used the defib, given cpr for 30 minutes. there's nothing else to do" saying one of the paramedics and we all stay silent. "that's it, she's gone" he says and stops giving cpr. "that's the end of the resus" he says one more and we all step back. i look down at this lifeless women on the rescue board and i pant, from all the effort i've put in from the past 30 minutes. i look across the water and now my head, shaking it. i walk back to the woman and pack up our gear and help the woman onto the bench and put her on the back of the rhino. the paramedics and deano head up to the ambo and chappo and i gather our stuff and walk over to the other guys. he's just coughing up water and just breathing. "do you guys need help" we ask while we watch jesse, maxi and reidy help him along with the paramedics. "we're good, you guys head back up" kerrbox says and we do so.
we head back up to the tower and fill harrison in with what happened and he shakes his head. ten minutes later the others come up and we all just grieve in science.
we are required to continue to patrol the back and we do so for the next two hours until hoppo calls it a day, two hours early and send us home. "pack up and head home. we'll debrief tomorrow" he says over the radio and we do so.
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harrison reid // maxi // bondi rescue
Fanfictionelyse (22yrs) is the only female lifeguard at bondi beach. she's a committed and dedicated lifeguard and proves to the whole team that not only she can be a lifeguard, but all women can do it. she's been a part of the team for one season already and...
