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Photograph by Skye Dunlap
Twenty-year-old Brittany Wade saved the life of a man she discovered unconscious at the bottom of the Fair Oaks West apartment complex pool.
Off-duty lifeguard saves man's life
The 20-year-old pulls victim from pool, revives him with CPR
By Kelly Wilkinson
As 20-year-old Brittany Wade sits by the pool relating the story of pulling a man from the bottom and re-starting his heart, she keeps glancing over her shoulder into the blue water.
She says talking about the incident still rattles her, but it was also an event that instilled in her a keener sense of self-confidence, as well as a sharper eye for life-guarding, which, incidentally, is her summer job.
"It was crazy," she says. "I still can't believe I did that, and it all happened."
On the night of July 10, she had been out for a bike ride and stopped at the Fair Oaks West apartments to go swimming with her boyfriend. She knew of the private pool because a close friend of hers used to live there, and she still knows some of the managers and employees.
Wade was in the shallow end doing handstands. Nearby, a group of men were splashing around in the same end of the pool.
"I could just tell [they couldn't swim] because they didn't have their faces in the water, so I thought, 'I just hope they don't go into the deep end.' "
A short while later, someone called for help and asked if anyone could swim. One of the men had ventured into the deep end by holding onto the side of the pool. He had slipped, inhaled water and was lying face-down at the bottom of the pool.
Wade says that she dove into the deep end without thinking and pulled him to the surface, where someone helped her lift him out of the water.
"I didn't even think, it was just a reaction," Wade says of her response. The man had stopped breathing and had no pulse. She started CPR, but his chest still wasn't moving, so she performed an abdominal thrust and finger sweep of his mouth to try and clear any blockage. Then another man and she continued performing CPR until they revived him.
"I've never even had to go in a pool after someone," Wade says of her three years as a lifeguard. "But I don't know, I just did what I had to do. I'm just happy he started breathing, because it would have been a huge disappointment."
Wade said the incident has prompted some realizations about herself, including a renewed interest in becoming a firefighter.
"I wasn't sure I had what it took, but now I know I can react quickly," she says. "I always had wondered, if something happened, if I would freak out and forget all this stuff I knew, but now I think I would do a really good job."
Wade partially credits the pool where she works in Palo Alto for some of that recall. Management there requires all lifeguards to spend each Friday morning reviewing lifesaving practices. Lifeguards also must be re-certified annually.
"I think that really helped a lot, because a lot of places just stick you out there and you're expected to know everything on a dime," she said. "But my manager is really organized, and it's a together group."
Paula Provoznik, the manager at Greenmeadow pool where Wade works, said it is rare for a lifeguard to have to make a save that involves CPR, and reviving a victim whose heart has stopped is even more rare.
"She's a wonderful worker," Provoznik says. After the incident, Wade related the story to her fellow lifeguards.
"I think that it has helped [her co-workers] realize how seriously they need to take their jobs and how quickly something like this can happen," Provoznik says.
Wade has heard some hero comparisons but shrugs modestly in response.
"I don't feel like a hero at all," she says. "I just think I did my job."
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Sunnyvale, California Since 1994
