Water Safety Reminder

By Dr. Jennifer Loussia Burlingame

Dr. Jennifer Loussia Burlingame

All it took was thirty seconds. It was thirty seconds that my heart stopped beating because I realized our reality. What I thought was going to be a simple ‘let’s go help a kayaker get back on her kayak’ turned into something I still think about to this day; it invades my dreams. All it took was thirty seconds for me to realize that me and my children would witness something that, as a mother, I was not ready for. All it took was thirty seconds for me to realize that my daughter was willing to put someone else’s life first. All it took was thirty seconds for us to go from ‘Good Samaritans’ to ‘Heroes.’

It was a beautiful summer day in July. I had just come home from the gym and my kids wanted to go out for a pontoon ride. We were visiting our family in Wisconsin. My husband moved to Michigan 15 years ago when we were married, so as often as we are able, we try to go back and visit. We’ve made it a tradition to attend a festival called Country Thunder each summer with his family. The event took place that week. This time we stayed in a lake house where his cousins keep their boats. We are drawn to water.

My father, an immigrant from Iraq, ironically found his way to the water as a teenager. In his early 20s, he bought his first house on a lake and purchased his first boat. Who would’ve imagined that he would go from the desert to the lake? He became the man that taught everyone to water ski. He taught me and my siblings, he taught all my cousins, and he taught his friends. He became a lake man. When he passed six years ago, I took over that role. I love the water. I love skiing like my dad did. I love teaching everyone to ski. It’s a passion and it helps me feel close to my dad. It was natural for us to gravitate to the lake. And so, here we were in Wisconsin on a lake enjoying our family’s past time.

My husband was on a run, so our nanny (Terry, who came with us to watch the kids while we went to the festival), my three kids, and I took out the pontoon. It was a perfect lake day and the kids wanted to go knee boarding. Because I grew up boating, it was natural for me to take the kids out on the lake. Fortunately for us and for a certain middle-aged woman, our nanny had an eye that helped save a life.

While driving the pontoon I noticed two kayakers on my left. This was not typical as normally they stay close to shore, especially on a lake that size. They seemed to be lounging in the middle of the lake, so I didn’t think anything of it. Terry also noticed them as she is an avid kayaker. Her intuition told her that something was amiss and inevitably she was right. One of the kayakers was in the water and Terry told me there was no way she was getting back in the kayak easily in open water. So, despite my son having the best knee boarding run yet, I stopped the boat to pull him in. By the time I did so and turned the boat around, my 30 seconds had started.

It felt like an eternity to get to them - one woman screaming at the top of her lungs for help, the other woman floating with one leg over the edge of the kayak. As we got closer, I realized the second woman was blue and her head was completely submerged. It felt like another eternity for me to realize my children may witness someone die before their eyes if we didn’t do something in those next 5 seconds.

I called 911 and tried to stop the boat; I was at full speed trying to get there as soon as possible. Before I realized it, my daughter Maria had jumped in. MY DAUGHTER JUMPED IN!! She was 11 years old at the time and one of the bravest and most empathetic kids I know, but when she jumped in, I panicked again.

By the time I could get a life jacket on and jump in, she had reached the lady and had her head above the water. The lady in distress did not have a life jacket on, and we managed to get one under her as the kayak floated away.

Together, Maria and I swam her to the back of the pontoon. And of all miracles God could have granted us, I deadlifted a middle-aged, overweight woman up the ladder steps of the pontoon. Terry made her way to the stairs; she had been consoling my boys who were terrified and unsure what was happening.

As Terry pulled the woman up by her hair and I lifted her body, we got her on the deck halfway, which was enough to start CPR and ensure she would not fall back in the water. My family sat back as I, a trained family physician, performed CPR on a pontoon in the middle of a lake. If anyone would have asked me during my training if I ever imagined I would be in that situation, I would have denied it. Could that have been anyone in that situation? Yes. Luckily, I knew CPR. Every adult should know CPR.

By now 3 minutes had passed. Before the police arrived, other ‘Good Samaritans’ who heard the screams came to help. An older gentleman jumped on the pontoon and drove us to shore as I continued CPR. By another miracle, the woman started coughing. I turned her to her side and out came the stream of water that had suffocated her as she tried to get back in her kayak in open water without a life jacket. Back came the pink color to what was once a blue (and surely dead) face that my children and I will likely never forget.

The kayaker was transferred via EMS to a local hospital and regained consciousness within 24 hours. I did not know in those 30 seconds that my daughter and I would save a life. I realize now that we were way too close to being witnesses to death by drowning. It wasn’t until that night that I realized my daughter could have drowned. I could have drowned. If that woman had had any form of consciousness, she could have drowned us out of hysteria. It is miraculous to me that she was that far gone to spare us a struggle, but not far gone enough to enter the gates of Heaven. An angel watched over us that day. I have no words to explain the rollercoaster of emotions I had that weekend and still have to this day.

I hope the lessons left behind are ones we can all learn from. Water safety knowledge is of utmost importance and anyone who enjoys the water should take classes and, at the least, wear a life jacket when out in deep water. And lastly, to anyone who is able, a CPR class would serve in ways one may never imagine. Thirty seconds was all it took for me, a physician and lake lover, to realize the importance of water safety for all. It may seem intuitive, yet too many people fail to actively realize it.

The life you save may be your own or the life of someone you love.