Jack held his breath, and then was gone | Augusta-Margaret River Mail

JACK MacMILLAN drowned in a metre of water in his backyard, a short distance from his mother, who never let him or his sisters in the pool unsupervised.

Two days before he was to start high school, he drifted quietly to the pebblecrete floor at the shallow end while swimming underwater laps - not splashing, not distressed, not fighting death.

The coroner would later look for a bump on his head or some outward sign of what had claimed his life, but there were none.

The problem had occurred inside Jack's body and was - as his family so fiercely want it known - the result of a common, ages-old game.

Jack, 12, of Cordeaux Heights, had been swimming underwater laps before he died on January 29.

He became so focused on his personal target he ignored his body's urge to breathe and lost consciousness. When he did take his next breath, his lungs filled with water, not air, and he quickly drowned.

Jack's aunt, Sharon Washbourne, is leading a campaign to raise awareness of the set of circumstances leading to his death, known as ''shallow water blackout'' or ''hypoxic blackout''. Mrs Washbourne is concerned that the threat is going unrecognised, partly because deaths are sometimes attributed to more general causes such as drowning.

She is working with Royal Life Saving NSW and has written to the Sports Minister, Kate Lundy, in the hope of making shallow water blackout as well known as ''Slip, Slop, Slap''.

''This is something that every child is doing - adults are doing it,'' Mrs Washbourne said. ''[Neither] Jack nor any of us knew the consequences of holding your breath too many times repetitively. You literally have seconds to pull someone up before brain damage or death occurs.''

Exhaustion is a key contributor to blacking out underwater, as is exertion, which can cause oxygen levels to deplete more quickly than in a body at rest.

Family members believe Jack could have remained conscious if the periods between his underwater laps had been longer, allowing his oxygen and carbon dioxide levels to return to normal.

His mother, Michelle MacMillan, said Jack was a capable swimmer who loved being in the water.

''When we were looking to buy a house the first question was always 'does it have a pool?' '' Mrs MacMillan, a child protection worker, said. ''Most days he'd be hassling me - 'mum, when can we go in the pool?' - because I wouldn't let them in until I was ready to watch them.''

Mrs MacMillan was tending to Jack's sisters near the pool when she noticed he was motionless in the water. ''When I saw him he was at the bottom of the pool. At first I thought, is he just playing, mucking around? It was so quick.''

The Royal Life Saving Society maintains a fact sheet on its website about hypoxic blackout and, in June, provided information to pool lifeguards through its Lifeguard Network Blog.

Jack's family have set up a Facebook page called Shallow Water Blackout SWB to build support for their campaign. https://www.facebook.com/ShallowWate...outSwb?fref=ts

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"Fish, I love you and respect you very much. But I will kill you dead before this day ends." ~ The Old Man and the Sea

omg

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Chris Grauer- "To protect, promote, and grow the sport of spearfishing" www.spearfishingplanet.com

Very sad. But a great post. Thanks Lisa.

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Steve Moore 305 849 0866
steve@keysmobilediving.com
www.keysmobilediving.com

Wow. Tragic.

Everyone needs education.

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Poor Kid, barely getting started in life and gone - May God rest his soul. It's a shame people can push so hard that they push beyond the limits of their minds and bodies - I wish there was a warning light or something but there isn't. It seems some of the most talented and best in the sport die training or pushing their limits every year - And an extraordinary amount of shallow water blackouts happen in swimming pools where a proper buddy could have saved them from drowning 100 percent of the time. We can NEVER let our guard down - Ever.

THE FOLLOWING CAN SAVE A LIFE - OR YOURS!

-Proper surface intervals are important because they allows time for your body to flush out carbon dioxide and help metabolize the accumulated lactic acid that your muscles generate during a dive. I tend to have much better dive times if I follow a good surface interval pattern - especially a moderately extended one.


-As a general rule, a surface interval should be DOUBLE the total time spent underwater i.e. if your dive was one and one-half minutes you need three minutes of down time MINIMUM to rest and recover. After that down time you can then begin preparing for the next dive. I like to take an EXTRA minute most dives, and sometimes even more. At the end of the day I am less fatigued and the whole experience is more relaxing.



- For dives over 60 feet, your surface intervals should increase to 5 or more minutes for EACH minute spent underwater - This might seem a little extreme for some, but it will keep you alive. We all know, but as a final warning: Always have a buddy who is better or equal in diving skills and knows what to do in the event of a shallow water blackout. Take no chances and we all smile tomorrow.

Professional Freedive classes, although ridiculously expensive for the average spearo - Are well worth it. It sure makes me feel good when I am diving with someone who has also been professionally trained - And has passed a course in freediving and or freediving safety.

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This raised a question for me. I was born and grew up in Miami. I, like many kids, had a swimming pool and spent a lot of time in te ocean.
My parents still made me take swimming lessons. To learn the things you can't figure out like form, technique and the science of hypoxia and the importance of good breathing.
Did anyone else take similar lessons, Dix anyone else get taught breathing safety before it was focused in diving?
I always thought it was excessive for me to take swim lessons as I was a great swimmer. Suddenly it seems like it was a great idea

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Truelly sad to read about. Thought this might be appropriate to add to this discussion for folks to read as i feel this and the original subject can go hand in hand. The mention in the article about not splashing, making noise or anything is the primary reason. After spending my Navy enlistment working in a SAR squadron I will validate this article as accurate to what we where trained while in.

Drowning Doesn’t Look Like Drowning | gCaptain - Maritime & Offshore

Thanks Lisa seems like hearing more and more of stories like this sad.....

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http://aristakatcharters.yolasite.com/
Learn to hunt megs http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HfbZU7JCEPw

I've read that before salty. Great article.
It actually helped a friend of mine save a little girl on Miami beach.

Education truly can and will save lives

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I have some non-diver friends who were drunk in the Keys one nite and got into an underwater laps challenge in their pool. One guy blacked out and sank to the bottom. The other guys thought he was playing around and simply laughed about it...for almost too long. Finally someone went in and pulled him up and he was still unconsious...luckily. He came around after a while. Only then did they realize how close things had come.