You hear that people drown close to safety, around people that can help them. Part of me always thought that was a bit of huey - I mean, how can you NOT notice that someone is downing.
Then I saw it with my own eyes.
Alice and I were on a platform and Laura was off snorkeling. Other tourists were snorkeling around off the platform. I saw one guy about 6 feet from the entry point. He bobbed up without his snorkel in, then bobbed down, but just over his nose and mouth. He came up, bobbed again. At this time we had locked eyes. My thought was "what is this guy playing at? I don't get it". Each time at the top he'd spit out some water and gasp a bit. He did this about half a dozen times. Then he raised one arm as they had told us to do if we were in distress. The staff rang a bell, dived in and saved him. At this point I noticed that his girlfriend (?) was getting a pool noddle for him. There were probably about 30 people in a small area around him.
It freaked me out a bit. If I was just in the vicinity it probably wouldn't have bothered me as much as it did. But we were staring at each other as this was happening. I was literally staring into the eyes of a drowning man and had no idea.
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