A woman in Nanaimo has Nanaimo Aquatic Centre staff and first responders to thank for possibly saving her life.
Nanaimo Aquatic Centre was shut down and the pools evacuated after a woman was seen floating unconscious in one of the pools shortly after 7 p.m. Wednesday.
“At 7:10 a lifeguard noticed a female patron submerged about a foot underwater and the lifeguard blew the whistle and performed, what we call, a routine pull-out, in the industry,” said Damon Johnston, city assistant manager of aquatics. “The patient was unconscious at the time of the pull-out.”
Lifeguards at the pool started CPR and employed an automated external defibrillator, which Johnston said did not fire an electrical shock, possibly because the woman had a regular heartbeat.
Lifeguards continued to treat the middle-aged woman until emergency medical services from Nanaimo Fire Rescue and B.C. Ambulance Service arrived at 7:15 p.m.
“The woman was breathing and conscious when she left the facility with the paramedic, so as far as we know it was a really good outcome and the woman was, of course, transported to the hospital for further medical attention,” Johnston said.
It has so far not been determined why the woman became unconscious in the first place, which is being investigated. NAC staff are also waiting for a report to determine why the AED did not apply a shock to the patient.
The aquatic centre was cleared and closed for the rest of Wednesday night. It would normally have been open until 10 p.m.
“It’s regular procedure that we clear the pools at this point and we felt because of the nature of the incident that we were going to clear the facility and so we did keep it closed for the rest of the night just to give staff some time, after an incident like that, to sort of just talk about it and debrief,” Johnston said.
He said aquatic centre staff respond to medical incidents on a “fairly regular basis,” but being required to perform CPR is rare. It is not uncommon, however, for lifeguards to pull people out of the pool who are displaying signs of possible drowning, but they are usually conscious and not submerged.
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