The
Impossible
Rescue
That
Saved
My Life
Gnrrutl Cihnrson tfuinhs Ill's rescuers, Bill Knight (left)
and Ray Scharf, at hospital.
Beneath the water, a trapped
youth was starving for air
so two friends took
breaths of life down to him
By GARRETT GIBERSON
as told to Arden Eidell
The other lifeguard had already
pushed up toward the surface of the
water. But I didn't move; I hovered at
the bottom of the swimming pool a few
feet above the dark mouth of the drain.
There was no reason for me to stay. Our job
was done. Bill Knight and I had tugged the steel
grate off the drain, and now the water from the
120-by-50-foot pool was rushing through the 20
inch opening. Soon the pool would be empty, and
we could clean it and then head home for dinner.
I knew I should get going; it was after 7
o'clock. Nevertheless, I hung there a moment
longer. There was something fascinating about
that round, black, gulping hole in an underwater
world where everything else was so still and clear
and shimmering bright.
If I had been thinking, it might have occurred
to me that the force of the water was greater
than usual and that this probably had something
to do with the repairing of the drain valve the
week before.
But I wasn't thinking; I was just watching
and apparently drifting. For with a sudden jar
ring jerk the force of the rushing water yanked
me downward and slammed me into the drain !
The suction wedged my hips and the back of
my legs into the hole like a cork in a bottle. My
first try at shoving myself out let more water
storm in around me, and to my horror I was
sucked even deeper inside!
For a second, I wondered about drowning. I
was trapped 52 to 6 feet under water in an en
closed pool that was padlocked for the night.
But I quickly shook such thoughts from my
mind; I realized that the best possible help was
within summoning distance.
Bill was still floating in the water above me,
and I knew that Ray Scharf, another lifeguard,
was working down at the shallow end of the
pool. Asbury Park, N.J., is famous for the train
ing it gives the men who guard its pool and
beaches. Bill and Ray were experts; they would
get me out.
AT that moment. Bill glanced my way, so I
. waved at him. He hesitated a second prob
ably to decide if I was horsing around or not
and then dived down. He grabbed my shoulders
and pulled while I pushed. Nothing happened. We
tried again. Still no luck.
Bill rocketed to the surface to get help from
Ray. In a moment, they both streaked down to
ward me.
By that time, I knew I was in real trouble.
As Bill and Ray yanked at my arms and legs,
I struggled to help them. But I was getting dizzy,
and my body quivered with the strain of battling
exhaustion. ,
I had often wondered to myself how a good
swimmer could drown. Now I knew. You' fight
just so long, and then you get unbearably tired.
No pain. No past flashing suddenly before you. No
terror. Just complete exhaustion.
During tests in the pool, I had been able to
hold my breath two minutes. I figure the will to
live added another half-minute to my staying
power under there. But finally the breaking point
came; my breath exploded through my clenched
teeth and lips, and the water came in. For a
second, the thump-thump-thump in my throat
shook my whole head. Then I blacked out.
Bill and Ray were still trying to tear my body
out of the drain when I lost consciousness. They
told me later that they continued this for a while,
surfacing only when they had to. During one
of their quick trips to the top, Ray yelled to Bill:
"I'm going to grab a mouthful of air and try
to force it into Gary! You try it, too."
Ray doesn't know how this idea came to him;
he had never heard of anyone doing it under
water before. But he and Bill put their new
lifesaving tactic to work: time after time, they
brought the breath of life down to me at the
bottom of the pool. .
How long did they keep it up? Ray estimates
he did it at least 20 times. By going through the
same motions again afterward, he found he could
make five such trips a minute. That means he
and Bill carried air to me for about four minutes.
By the end of the time, they were desperate;
my body was turning blue, and I was stuck as
tightly as ever. So Bill took a chance: he left
Ray alone with me while he made a dash for the
drain valve at the side of the pool. It takes about
a minute to twist the cumbersome valve the
necessary 50 turns; to Bill, it must have seemed
like forever.
Bill then returned to help Ray pull at what
they feared was my lifeless body. The pres
sure in the pipe equalized slowly ; but as it did, the
drain's grip loosened and they were able to drag
me out. Immediately, Ray pulled my head above
water and began breathing into my mouth while
Bill rhythmically pumped at my chest With each
cycle, they nudged me a step farther toward the
shallow end of the pool.
As soon as they got me there, Bill ran to the
nearest phone (in a restaurant about 150 yards
away), and Ray continued to give me mouth-to-mouth
artificial respiration.
When Bill got back, I was breathing! Ray said
I first made a gurgling noise, took a few breaths
and then bit his finger. He had to get a tetanus
shot for it.
I guess I must have begun "fighting the water"
again as soon as I got a breath back in me. Dur
ing the ambulance ride, I bit through a plastic
tube and a steel clamp (the result: one chipped
front tooth). And in the emergency room of the
hospital, four men had to hold me down until
they could get a sedative into me.
Oddly enough, when I regained consciousness
about 3 o'clock the next morning, the first thing
I wanted was water. I had a slight case of
pneumonia, and my 104-degree fever made me
terribly thirsty.
The brush with death that almost ended my
life at 19 occurred July 30. Now I am back at
Randolph-Macon College in Ashland, Va., where
I am a premedical student. There still is some
controversy about my rescue. People with life
saving experience say that Bill's and Ray's under
water breathing couldn't have kept me alive.
But it does seem there is one point worth
noting. Scientists say that normally a man can't
stay underwater more than two to four minutes
without suffering brain damage. By adding up
the time it took Bill and Ray to perform each of
the parts of my rescue, we estimate I must have
been down there at least 7li minutes and the
only permanent scar I have is a lasting aversion
to drainpipes.
i
Family Wnlcly. Octobtr 7. 1962