Water safety learned the hard way

  • Published
  • By Lt. Col. Nate Allerheiligen
  • 50th Airlift Squadron commander
LITTLE ROCK AIR FORCE BASE, Ark. --  On Nov. 1, 2008, I was enjoying an unseasonably warm day at the Heber Springs., Ark., reservoir with my family and friends. The water temp was still in the upper 70s, so it was a great day to be on the lake. We started the day with some boating on the pontoon boat, with our friends riding on their Jet Skis. After a while, they invited me to take one for a spin. Not having a lot of experience on small powered watercraft, I took it easy at first, keeping my distance from other boats and remaining vigilant of those around me. Later, I took my younger son on my lap for a spin while my older son, 11 at the time, was riding the other Jet Ski. He had ridden several times before and was conscientious and careful in how he rode. We were having a really nice time and enjoying the day and the fun together.

At one point, I came up behind my son and was getting too close to him, so I headed off in a wide sweeping left turn to get some distance from him while he headed off to the right. My young son was "helping" me steer and run the throttle. As I looked over my shoulder for the other rider, I couldn't see him, so I thought we were safe to keep turning. Spray got in my eyes for a moment as we rolled out of the turn and then I saw him.

Directly ahead of me, directly in my path, was my son on a collision course. We were maybe 50 yards apart and each doing 20 knots or more toward each other. I barely had time to have any reaction, so I did my best to steer away without capsizing or stopping directly in his path. Unfortunately, he kept turning slightly left into my path and we collided. My boat went up and over the left front of his, flying two or three feet above the water, and stopped about 50 or 60 yards away.

I immediately turned around and thought for a moment that he was okay. He was sitting erect on his craft with his hands by his side. Then it happened. He turned to the right, almost as if on purpose, and fell into the water - face first. That image will haunt me forever.

At that moment, instinct kicked in and I instantly jumped into the water and began a lifesaver crawl to him. It seemed to take forever to reach him, the whole time his face was in the water. I instantly noticed blood in the water as I turned him over. Praise God, he began to breathe and did the "funky chicken" --a series of spasms common when a person who has blacked out regains conscientiousness. He had a huge wound above his left ear that was bleeding profusely. I didn't have time or opportunity to do any more triage, so I headed back to the boat. No one else was in sight and we were exactly in the middle of the lake with more than a half mile swim in any direction to reach shore.

Fortunately, he was wearing a vest-style life preserver and was floating without effort. I grabbed the back of his vest and began pulling him back to my craft where my other son was patiently and quietly waiting. My injured son was responsive to my voice and could move his arms -- he even tried to help swim. With his help, I was able to get him back onto my craft, get the motor started, and the three of us raced back to shore.

When we reached shore, I helped him into a prone position on the concrete, secured his head and neck while applying direct pressure onto his head wound with my own shirt. By then, our friends had already called for an ambulance. The ambulance arrived quickly and took him to the local hospital, which was less than 10 minutes away.

He was evaluated in the local hospital and found to not have any significant head, neck or back injuries. The cut on his scalp was more than they wanted to handle and he had lost a lot of blood, so they medically evacuated him to Arkansas Children's Hospital via helicopter. By the time we drove the 75 minutes to the hospital, he was lucid, responsive and doing well. He received 11 staples to close the head wound and was released that night.

There are several lessons to be learned by this life-changing experience, but the paramount discovery is that life preservers save lives. Without the jacket, he may have very well sunk beyond my reach before I could get to him. There is no way that I could have pulled my son 75 yards through the water and onto that Jet Ski had he not been wearing a jacket. He is a big kid for his age - he was 5' 7" and 160 pounds at that time. Likewise, had I not had my jacket on, I likely would have drown from exhaustion trying to bring him back to safety.

I also learned the importance of carefully and conservatively following all the safety precautions in the owner's manual of the water craft. As vigilant as I was, the added distraction of having my younger son in my lap made the maneuvers we were doing dangerous and almost tragic.

Finally, water rescue, first aid, and CPR courses are a must. Knowing how to properly save and treat a loved one, or even a stranger, is a critical skill that everyone should endeavor to gain.