photo of the day

This one has a story and a picture...

Today we decided to go to Hapuna Beach. It was one that we had been to once before and we liked it, so we went back today. Rick dropped us off and went to park the car since there were so many people at the beach and we had to park a ways away. I had unpacked our load and settled in when Rick arrived. He had just gotten comfortable when I noticed a crowd of people coming out of the water. The thing that caught my eye was that there was a young mom with a baby on her hip who had a hold of the arm of a man that they were dragging out of the water. Within just a few seconds the life guards were out there on their 4-wheeler. They didn't even have the man all the way out of the water when they dropped him and started chest compressions. He didn't have a pulse. Rick jumped up and started helping. The man was wearing a wet suit so they cut his shirt off and continued trying to get him to breath. A small crowd gathered around as the life guards tried to find out if anyone knew this man. There were 3 life guards and they were working like crazy. They got a pulse and got him breathing. They got him on a back board. Then they carried him to the ambulance. It appeared as though he had had a seizure.

This is what I found out after Rick returned: the man had a history of seizures. They found his wife. There were 3 ER doctors and a neurosurgeon who were helping the life guards.

This is what I found to be the most bizarre about this whole event:

As I was watching what was going on I noticed the 3 lifeguards were at the man's head and shoulder area. Then Rick was on his right side down by his hip area. Another man was opposite Rick. He looked familiar. I had met him before. In Hawaii. Last year when we were in Maui we met a family at the pool. They were from Canada. (I could tell by the way he said "about"). My mom asked him how he could take two weeks off work at a time. He said he was an ER physician and he and Rick were both registered for an Emergency Medicine conference in Wailea. It was him on the beach today. I looked at Summer and I asked her if he looked familiar to her. She said yes, and immediately pointed out his wife and kids that we had met last year. On a different island.

After the collapsed man was taken care of, Warren was walking back to the beach with Rick. I asked him if he was "vacation stalking" us. We laughed about what a coincidence it was that we would meet up with them again. The beach we were at was about 20 minutes from our condo. As we talked, we found out that they were staying less than a mile from us. Rick and I had gone on a run this morning and had passed their complex. Funny thing is, He and his wife had gone on a run this morning past our condo, too.

Weird.

(in the photo, the two shirtless guys and the one in the yellow shorts were the lifeguards. Rick is wearing a black t-shirt with a white hat. Warren is the short guy in the gray and red swimshirt.)

Rick pointed out that if one were to have an "incident" like this, then this was a great place to have it. 3 ER doctors and a neurosurgeon on hand in less than a minute. You can't beat that anywhere. Plus, this guy happened to be on a beach that actually had lifeguards. Good ones. They probably have to be that good if you think about it...lots of older people doing things they don't normally do every day. Trying to act like a kid again. Hawaii statistically has one of the highest rates of drownings as any vacation beaches anywhere.