Summer 1986- Julian, an 18-year-old lifelong swimmer was challenged, by a friend, to see who could swim the most underwater laps at the pool. He gladly accepted the challenge. After hyperventilating, as a way of holding his breath longer, he had a Shallow Water Blackout and sunk to the bottom of the deep end. Luckily, his friends Sarah and Jim were there to recognize the situation and pull him out to safety.
Survivor’s account of the incident:
I didn’t understand what had happened after my Shallow Water Blackout down in Mexico, but I have always recognized that I could have drowned if Jim had not been there to pull me out. To me it was one of those freakish experiences in life where you realize you easily could have died but, did not. I was very fortunate that there were people around paying attention to what I was doing. Especially Sarah who recognized there was a problem and made Jim quickly jump in to pull me out. What I remember about the experience was being challenged by a friend to swim underwater laps. I didn’t realize it, at the time, but he had been doing a lot of snorkeling in the Bahamas and had learned to control his need for H20, I guess. Anyway, as kids my brothers & I use to always have the underwater races at the pool and I had never seen anyone black out doing it, and I was pretty good at pushing the limits of it. I know hyperventilating was a trick we used to get as much air in the lungs as possible and I did that before my final race against the other guy. I think, I actually swam maybe 3 1/4 laps underwater in the pool before realizing I needed to, give up the race and, surface for air. After that, I don’t remember anything until I “came to” at the side of the pool with a bunch of people standing over me. I remember them asking if I was alright and all I knew was that my back was killing me from where I was dragged out of the pool over the concrete. I have gone on to Surf, Scuba Dive and Whitewater Kayak all over the world, but I will never hyperventilate in an effort to hold my breath underwater again, as this was the closest to drowning I have experienced. I owe a great amount of gratitude to Jim and Sarah Kennedy for saving my life, I recognize every second counts in a situation like this, and I have no doubt their quick response made a difference in my life.