Media Articles and Coverage
Lifeguards Get Help From ‘Turtle’
Simi Valley YMCA uses alarm system to signal pool rescues
By Jake Finch, Correspondent
November 28, 2005
Using a scale based on his years of experience as a lifeguard, Jim Carper's rescue of two young boys this summer in the Simi Valley Family YMCA swimming pool during a class was relatively minor.
Minor though it was, Carper said rescuing the boys who became tangled under water while playing was made much simpler by a new alarm system installed this year at the YMCA, which alerted employees to the rescue.
"I went into the water to pull (the boys) apart," said Carper, a longtime guard and fitness instructor at the YMCA.
"By the time I had got them out, I had the aquatics director, head lifeguard and camp director all standing at the top of the stairs. When you're a lifeguard, it's great to know you have that backup and support."
The alarm, called the Safety Turtle Alarm System, sends a signal to the YMCA's front desk when it becomes wet.
Attached to the lifeguards' rescue buoys, which always go with them into the water during a rescue, the alarm supplements the guards' whistles.
The whistles can't always be heard through the walls of the facility.
Aquatics Director Robert Martin purchased the system after realizing the lifeguards' whistles couldn't always be heard.
He wanted something to bring additional help for a lifeguard on a rescue.
"The front desk staff needs to respond to the pool area and see what needs to happen next," he said.
The device was invented to be worn by young children around swimming pools.
Co-inventor Bill Lyons, who is president of the Ontario, Canada-based Terrapin Communications Inc., the Safety Turtle's manufacturer, said this was the first time he's heard of his alarm used in this way: worn by a buoy, not a child.
"I invented this product really for the parent and the home, because this is where the kids are drowning. That's where they need help, but so many more people have picked it up enthusiastically," he said.
Other uses include for ship workers who might fall overboard undetected, seniors working in water therapy programs, and pet owners keeping Fido safe around their pool, Lyons said.
Martin said on the first day the alarm was installed, a little girl at the YMCA taking swim lessons was rescued after falling off the steps into the water while her instructor worked with another child.
"I think what it's done is made the rest of the staff here more aware that we do make rescues. Now everyone hears it," Martin said.
The backup provided by other staff members can be essential to a lifeguard's success during a rescue, Carper said.
"When you go through a rescue situation, there are a dozen things going through your mind," Carper said. "You may have a back injury or a stroke or there may be things with the rescue itself.
Now, when we lifeguard by ourselves, we don't have to worry about clearing the pool, calling the backup guard and calling 911. We can focus on the first aid. I'm very pleased with it."
Jake Finch's e-mail address is alljake@hotmail.com.
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