A Lifeguard Test Turned Real on Monday
An experienced ocean lifeguard who has helped plenty of people in trouble in the water needed help herself on Monday while attempting her second recertification at Indian Wells Beach in Amagansett.
Melanie Mackin was one of many taking the tests for ocean rescue certification. Some were first-timers, but experienced swimmers, others were veteran lifeguards taking the test for recertification, which is required every three years.
At about 10 a.m., cries of “Call 911” could be heard down the beach as lifeguards tried to radio for an ambulance. Ms. Mackin was struggling to swim or stand in the shallow water during the individual rescue test.
For this portion of the certification, rescuers were required to swim 150 yards out to their “victims,” who had just completed the individual rescue themselves, and carry them back to shore and out of the water on their backs.
Ms. Mackin’s victim became her rescuer when, after jumping from her back, he caught her as she fell in the knee-deep water. “I felt dizzy and nauseous and started to black out,” Ms. Mackin wrote yesterday. “Once I got my victim on my back, I took about two steps and collapsed. I don’t remember anything after that.”
He held her upper body above the waves as the other swimmers, all of whom had completed the test, ran to the shoreline and lifted her onto the beach.
She was carried to the ambulance on a stretcher in the back of an all-terrain vehicle. Several of Ms. Mackin’s fellow lifeguards walked behind the A.T.V. to help keep the stretcher in place.
“It was so great that she had, like, a hundred lifeguards there to help her,” said Peter Gideon of the East Hampton Volunteer Ocean Rescue Squad.
John Ryan Sr., a member of the East Hampton Town’s Volunteer Ocean Rescue Squad who has been training lifeguards for almost 50 years, said that this is the first incident of this kind that he can remember. “We give a test in mid-June when the water is below 60. Swimmers get hypothermic, and there you will see guys struggling.” Those kinds of problems are not typical in August, he said.
“I know that I shouldn’t have tried to take the test,” Ms. Mackin said yesterday. “I hadn’t slept in over 24 hours, I was anxious about a lot that had happened that morning, severely dehydrated, and had low blood sugar levels, which I found . . . out once tests were run at Southampton Hospital.”
The strenuous certification continued without incident after her rescue. She received the very help that rescuers were there to prove they could provide, even in the most unexpected circumstances.
“Funny thing was, I wasn’t scared at all,” Ms. Mackin said. “Everything that I have learned from the time that I was 9 years old as a junior lifeguard, to now as a lieutenant at Kirk Park Beach, allowed me to never be afraid because I knew how well trained every other guard was. I know that every lifeguard at that test knew exactly what to do and they were able to get me into an ambulance safely and efficiently — something that I am extremely grateful for.”
She praised her fellow lifeguards, not just for what they did to help her but for what they do every day to keep all five protected town ocean beaches and three bay beaches safe. “It’s thanks to our chiefs — John Ryan Jr., John McGeehan, and Jeff Thompson — who put countless hours into this job to ensure that we are trained to our best ability. After Monday morning, I am overwhelmingly thankful for that.”
“The lifeguard program is just excellent and awesome,” her father, Barry Mackin, said yesterday.