Jacksonville, FL

Many homes in Jacksonville have backyard pools. They provide great fun, but they bring great risks as well.

I had a heart-stopping moment a few days ago. My daughter who is 17 years old was swimming with a friend. I was working on a story—my office windows provide a great view of the pool. Suddenly I heard the unmistakable sound of someone choking.

I rushed onto the deck—my daughter’s friend was coughing involuntarily. Before I did anything, Becky told me, “He swallowed a bug. I was about to knock it off his face and it went right into his mouth.”

We worked that out fairly rapidly. I could say prayers of thanks this was a fixable, even a somewhat comical emergency.

Having a pool is a luxury that brings the baggage of responsibility along with it. We diligently keep the chemicals at safe levels; we use a quality test kit purchased from a local pool supply company. I’ve often joked to friends my pool is cleaner than my kitchen.

We also have house rules. No one swims alone. This means if you’re home and everyone else is gone, you don’t go into the pool. No one dives head-first—it just isn’t deep enough. At the first sound of thunder, you head indoors. You always wipe your feet at the door—not because I’m a great housekeeper but because the tile floors in our sunroom will send you for an unexpected ride if you cross with wet feet. And if there are small children swimming, an adult must be poolside, focused on the swimmers.

We installed a safety drain cover. The drain is on the bottom, but just in case anyone wants to swim down there, at least there’s less chance long hair or garments will be sucked in. We also installed a double chime alarm on our back door. If small children are around, we’ll hear the alarm if one decides to venture near the water.

Recently there’s been widespread coverage about the six-year-old whose intestines were literally sucked out of her body by a wading pool drain in Minneapolis. The protective cover had come off the pool drain. In the last two years, the Minneapolis Star-Tribune says 13 people, most of them children, drowned after being caught in underwater drains.

For me the pool represents a benign risk. It provides great entertainment for our family and friends on these hot Florida days. But it also requires us to be careful and vigilant.

Just after we moved here, our beagle hound who was playing fetch with me on the deck sailed right into the pool. He immediately went under. Becky jumped in, retrieving him. Our dog now walks around the pool perimeter very carefully.

Bottom line: all dogs can’t swim. You live and you learn.

Because this time of year offers great opportunities for cooling off in backyard and public pools, I’m hoping everyone is mindful that even in the midst of having fun, an emergency can occur. It’s a lot easier to prevent an emergency than to remedy one.
(Photo Credit Jen Day)

http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/pubs/chdrown.html
Pool safety from the U.S. Consumer Products Safety Commission.

http://www.startribune.com/462/story/1285137.html‘Pool drain victim remains hospitalized, The Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Jul. 5, 2007.

Word Press, Technorati, Tags, Swimming Pool, Swimming Pool Safety, Swimming Accidents, Pool Drains, Pool Chemical Safety, Safety Tips Swimming Pools