Advice for Swimmer about Saving a Drowning Person from Dennis Butler - Nunda NY News 19 November 1910

ADVICЕ FOR SWIMMER

How to Approach and Save a Drowning Person

"The week end picnic and yachting parties make plenty of work for us during the vacation season," declared Dennis Butler, patrolman of the Third district in Philadelphia and at one time the amateur champion swimmer of America. In telling several friends about the long list of deaths, that have accompanied vacation periods during the many years of service that he has seen in the police department.

"What puzzles me more than anything else is the number of drownings that occur during the season," he continued. "Sometimes many a brave fellow who goes to the rescue of a drowning pleasure seeker is caught in the deadly clutch of a drowning man and accompanies him to a watery grave. 

"Now, I have learned from experience that to swim straight at a drowning person and attempt to seize him from the front means probable disaster. Нe will clutch wildly at anything and hold on fast. Нe prevents the swimmer from keeping his air, and when that is exhaled the jig is up. 

"Here is the way in which I have saved many a man. The best way to get at a drowning man is to swim around him and seize him beneath the armpits from behind. Then you are out of the reach of his arms and can hold him up and tread water. At times one must use other means of rescue. 

"Usually the person won't listen to your advice to keep still and will wriggle around and try to seize you by the neck. The only thing to do in that case is to deal him a blow on the bridge of the nose and stun him. Then the rest is easy. In his unconscious state the person will naturally become rigid, and all that you will have to do is to keep him afloat and tow him ashore. There are hundreds of ways in which a person can be rescued, the principal rudiments of which are to keep cool and always to keep out of the reach of his arms.

"Another important feature in the rescue work is that of getting rid of the water and restoring respiration. When the rescued party is on shore the first thing to do is to stand him on his head and hold his feet straight up in the air. The water will gush from his lungs, and when it stops flowing stand him on his feet with his back toward you and by holding him about the abdomen allow him to hang limply over. By pressing the abdomen in and out the water which is in his digestive organs will also be got rid of. 

"Another step is to lay him over a barrel or any other object face upward and his bead lowered toward the ground. Seize his bands and work them with a circular motion from the bead to the abdomen and back again. In bringing the arms back toward the head keep them wide open so that air will he forced into the lungs. Оf course the work of restoration requires anywhere from several minutes to many hours, according the amount of water which has been taken into the lungs.

"But, like everything else, even a novice can make an effort to prevent himself from drowning. When a man falls into the water who cannot swim the easiest way to keep up is to have the lungs well filled with air. This, together with the hands extended palm downward on a level with the breast and a few motions of the feet, will keep him on top for about a half hour, and in this time he has many chance s of being rescued. Instead of doing this, however, a novice upon falling into the water will raise his bands over his head and attempt to call for help. After he discharges the air from his lungs in the vain shout the lungs take in water, and then he naturally sinks." 

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