When mentioning drownings it is a good thing to mention that there are three different types of drowning. There is an active, passive, and suspected spinal. Each are pretty self explanatory but for a brief summary of each: Active is when the person is still alive and aware, passive means they are unconscious, and suspected spinal is just that, someone thinks they seriously hurt their neck or back. A common question asked to lifeguards is, “What was the worst drowning?” This question remains to be one of the most difficult ones to answer. When you rescue a lot of people in a lot of different situations, it becomes challenging to pick the “worst”. I believed this to be the truth, and it still is, but I can now with confidence say the worst situations I have encountered and had to rescue.

The worst save I ever had happened before any guest were in the pool. I had to pre-op, a morning check list to make sure it is safe to open the lazy river and I never thought I would see something that broke my heart so much. I did my lap around the river and that is when I saw it. I saw a baby kitten on top of a drain. The kitten did not move so I had to realize the cat was unconscious. The poor kitten had gotten its foot stuck in the drain and had his last breaths in the river. I had to get a friend to get it out, but it still hurt to see the kitten. After that day, the kitten became one of my worst rescues.