Peter Land doesn’t remember much following a sudden cardiac arrest which interrupted his daily swim at Manly Andrew Boy Charlton Swim Centre, also known as Manly Aquatic Centre, in May. But the scar, located on his chest, is a stark reminder of his near death experience, and more importantly, those who saved his life.
Judy Land, Peter’s wife, reached out to Manly Observer to sing praise for the Northern Beaches Council lifeguards who saved her husband’s life. Last week we joined the pair as they revisited the site to say thanks.
Peter and Judy were greeted as old friends at the centre’s reception by the pool’s Operations Coordinator, Jon Colwell. The three hadn’t previously met each other, but seeing the man destined for death, now resurrected – thanks largely in part to his expertly trained team of staff – conjured a smile on the experienced lifeguard’s face, which was infectiously shared and greeted with a handshake.
Present were Peter, Judy and Jon also accompanied by Operations Supervisor, Scott and pool lifeguard Lexie, whose life-saving efforts were deemed as essential on the day.
How do you say thank you to the ones who saved your life? What grand gesture is there to replicate the gratitude of being able to sit side-by-side with your lifelong partner? Peter wasted no time contemplating the answer as the words fell out of his mouth upon meeting his saviours, offering them a round of drinks. That’s hard to come by at the family-friendly pool, but the gesture was there.
So what happened?
It was a rainy Saturday morning in May when Peter went for his usual 6am swim. Peter can’t remember that day, but others can. A woman swimming backstroke bumped into Peter’s lifeless body, slightly submerged and beginning to sink. Another woman, in the next lane, a theatre nurse at the Royal North Shore Hospital, also stopped. Both quickly realised something was wrong, pulling Peter’s head above water and preventing him from swallowing anymore, beginning the life-saving efforts that day..
“I heard over the radio, ‘major emergency, 50-metre outdoor pool’,” Scott shared as the supervisor on that day.
“So I said, bring an ambulance, over the radio. I said, get the oxy breather, get the defibrillator, and clear all the other pools so there’s no other incident.”
The burly supervisor has decades of experience as a pool and beach lifeguard; he’s coordinated his fair share of life-saving procedures. In fact, within the relatively short time between Peter’s incident and now, he has been involved in coordinating two other life-saving rescues in the pool, including another cardiac arrest of a 71-year-old man who he performed compressions on.
Despite his track record, the emotion of retelling the overwhelming experience to Peter was present in the veteran rescuer’s voice.
“I heard over the radio, ‘major emergency, 50-metre outdoor pool’,” Scott shared as the supervisor on that day.”
“I ran through, got the coaches to clear all the pools, and then it just became all hands on deck, for everyone,” Scott continued.
“By the time I came out, Ian and Steve were working on him. A member of the public got him to the side of the pool and Steve got him out of the pool, and they were working on him.”
Steve and Ian are also experienced lifeguards at the pool and were the first responders on that day. They were unable to make the meetup reunion but were a crucial asset in Peter’s survival.
“And Lexi was running and getting the equipment, the oxy breather and the defib,” Scott added.
Lexi has plenty of experience and training as a lifeguard on the beach and the pool but had never needed to use it to save a life. The calm and collected safety crusader retold her experience of the day as if it were just another Saturday on the job.
“When it happened, I was in the first aid room outside, doing the oxygen checks, and I heard it come over the radio. I was the closest,” she said.
The young lifesaver brought oxygen to the scene and shortly after, acquired the defibrillator. “I’m very glad I’ve had all that training. And it was honestly not that different to the training. Obviously, there was a lot of adrenaline and things but really, we were just doing what we’ve been trained to do.”
Jon wasn’t on patrol at the time but managed to arrive at the Aquatic Centre ten minutes after receiving a call about the incident. By this time, he noted, multiple ambulances had arrived on the scene, and a critical care team arrived at the reserve next door via helicopter.
Once paramedics arrived, they attached a LUCAS machine (an electric CPR mechanism which maintains the correct rhythm of a heartbeat for extended periods of time) to Peter and he was rushed to the Emergency Department of the Royal North Shore Hospital.
The Boy Charlton regular would regain his pulse and begin breathing. He suffered problems derived from water in his lungs, as well as broken ribs and internal bleeding most likely from the CPR administered on him – but because of this, he is alive.
“I’ve had a quadruple bypass, which was performed by the Royal North Shore ICU people, then I had a defibrillator inserted a couple of weeks later, to the best of my recollection, and I think I’ve done very well, but I wouldn’t have done anything if it weren’t for these people,” Peter retold, holding back grateful tears.
“Every doctor that looked at him said he can owe his life to the early responders,” Judy added.
“Every doctor that looked at him said he can owe his life to the early responders,”
“They did a fantastic job. He wouldn’t have survived if it weren’t for them, it took a long time to get his heart pumping and get a pulse.
“Everything flowed and a life was saved. And I think everyone should know about it. I want everyone to know about it, how wonderful they are as a team.”
Jon explained that no one is more proud of his staff than he is. The team has surpassed their responsibilities for duty of care on multiple occasions, answering the call whenever it’s made. He also wanted to make sure that everyone who assisted that day was recognised for their efforts, as well as those who went above and beyond helping others at the pool every other day.
“When you put 30 years of experience that I’ve got in the industry, and you put these training and internal training programs together and the staff put effort into their training, it’s a really proud moment when there’s a worst case scenario avoided,” Jon said.
“It would be amiss if we didn’t mention the rest of the team at the venue, like the swim coaches that dropped everything with their squad to clear the pools so that these guys could attend to Peter, the customer service staff who coordinate those emergency services, and without them, Peter wouldn’t have got the help that he needed so soon.”
It’s been over twelve weeks since Peter’s cardiac arrest. He has made a miraculous recovery post-surgery, even boasting swimming 600 metres in the pool last week.
After the swim, the survivor retold that he languished in a chair and basked his newfounded chest scar in the warm sun; resting easy knowing if there were, God forbid, another incident to occur, his life would be in the faithful hands of the guardians of the Manly Aquatic.
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