A 15-year-old lifeguard from Washington was watching the city pool. Then, he saw a figure at the bottom of the pool that almost everyone missed
He saved a life.
Andrew (@thewanderingbeard2.0) was working as a city pool lifeguard in Vancouver, Washington. One year into the job, at fifteen, Andrew had a frightening encounter at the pool that he could never forget.
“One of the scariest days of my life happened in 2003, and I’m just going to warn you off the bat: this is gonna be a tough story for me to try and get through,” Andrew told TikTok. He started working as a lifeguard at fourteen, at both indoor and outdoor pools. Andrew has also worked at lakes and private clubs.
But on the fateful day, he was working at the Jim Parsley Center, an indoor public pool in Vancouver, Washington. Andrew said it was a large pool that was often packed in the summer. He explained, “Now, the thing is, on some of these hotter days in the summer, we would have to turn people away at some point, because the pool would get so full. It was just too much for the lifeguards to handle.”
During his shift, at least 150-200 people were swimming at the community pool. They were at maximum capacity, and Andrew was watching the swimmers. “I’m sitting there on my little lifeguard stand, and I’m scanning around, trying to keep track of all these people, which is basically impossible,” Andrew claimed. So many people made the water blur from all the splashing.
“You can’t see under the surface of the water through all these people splashing around,” he continued. But then, he claimed a miracle happened: a space in the pool where the swimmers separated. No splashes there, and he could clearly see the bottom of the pool.
He almost missed someone at the pool
“I looked down, and at the bottom of the deep section of the pool, I saw a little person. A little body at the very bottom of the pool,” Andrew said. The child, who he said was about three years old, was not moving. For a moment, Andrew recalled being frozen.
“I knew I was looking at a child who had drowned,” he explained. But Andrew blamed himself internally for being unable to see the child drown in the pool. But he snapped out of it, and a second later, Andrew said he dove off his stand and plunged into the water. It was roughly nine feet deep in that section, but Andrew managed to retrieve the boy’s body.
“I bring him up to the surface, and he’s gone. He drowned,” Andrew said. The boy, named Austin, was no longer responding to him. Immediately, the lifeguard placed the boy at the edge of the pool and gave him rescue breaths. After that, the boy started vomiting, and Andrew was relieved. The boy’s mother rushed over and started crying, but Andrew didn’t hand the boy over until emergency services arrived.
“They put him in an ambulance, they took him to the hospital, and he was totally fine,” Andrew recalled. He claimed the boy didn’t get brain damage or any other permanent disability because of the accident.
Rewarded for saving a life
Andrew said the boy’s mother stopped by the pool the next day. She brought him cookies and treats that she personally baked. The woman also gave him a card with a ‘thank you’ note. But the boy’s mother wasn’t the only one who showed gratitude.
Andrew claimed that the mayor of Vancouver called him into his office. Austin and his mother were there, and the mayor gave Andrew an award. The mother also gave Andrew a framed photo of Austin, which he has kept to this day.
“I guess the reason I get so emotional when I tell this story is because, like, if I’ve never done anything else in my life other than that, this all would be worth it for that,” Andrew tearfully said. It doesn’t cost a lot to help others, and even if it does, like with this cashier who used more than half of her bank balance to save an older woman’s grocery trip, the reward may well be worth it.
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