Things I learned - Race report PC HIM

[Veronica]

What do you think they should have out in the middle of the water that they could do CPR on? If the course is at all how I picture it, the swimmers were probably never more than 750 yards from shore.

Yes, it's sad, but I don't think it's the race organizer's fault in any way. Maybe there are some things they could do better. But who are we to second guess when we weren't even there? I bet the guy didn't go to his doctor and get a check up before he decided to try swimming a mile in open water. And maybe he did. There are lots of things that could have happened to him while he was swimming... stroke, brain aneurysm, flamingo bite... that no amount of medical intervention really could have done anything for.

V.

[salsabike]

For all we know, he DID check with his doc beforehand. Docs can't predict events like this, either. Our best efforts still don't provide any guarantees...and that's how life is. We make the best efforts, and then we go on, and...who knows what will happen? No one I've met yet, anyway.

[Wahine]

Plus 1 what V. and Salsa said.

The course is a large square course, so yeah, even if he was at the farthest point from shore it would have been about 700 m.

Roadie gal, thanks for explaining that. It seems to make sense with what I heard and saw. Would the same thing happen if he had swimming induced pulmonary edema?

From what I understand he was still conscious but in distress when they pulled him onto the jet ski, and was unconscious by the time they got him to shore. Who knows what happened.

[Zen]

CPR is old stuff. There are no more chest compressions, just rescue breathing.

[teigyr]

http://www.komonews.com/news/local/22704044.html

I guess we can't really speculate as to how it should've been unless we were there.

Anyway, very sad.

I think this is a better article

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/tex...thlete30m.html

Seems to be he was in shape and knew what he was doing.

[roadie gal]

CPR is old stuff. There are no more chest compressions, just rescue breathing.

Nope, just the opposite. Just compressions, no rescue breathing.

[tjf9]

Great job Wahine! It was a scorcher out there. Great lessons for me from your race as well, since I'm only a 2x triathlete.

I actually participated in the olympic tri. The ambulance was not on site, because I saw the ambulance rushing up the mtn, lights and sirens going (I was ~5 miles away from the swim at this point). Sounds like there was nothing to be done, either way, but I agree that with that distance to a hospital, at least an AED should be on site.

A similar event happened at a bike race here in Portland about 3 weeks back. Guy had a heart attack on the course, and the organizers had no paramedics or AED. Fortunately he was close into the city, so an ambulance could get there quick and he survived.

I think things like this should be a wake up call to all race organizers - be prepared!

[KSH]

Hey Wahine, sounds like a tough race, but yes we do learn from the hard days.

Still, even on your bad day, you beat my HIM time by like 2 hours. So from my turtle vantage point, you had an amazing race!