rescuer

You're right though, the safety of the rescuer always comes first.

I am a professional rescuer, and this is how we're trained".

That's all you need to know as a lay-rescuer. And if you forget, the 911 operator will walk you through it.

If there's a rescuer in reach, like a foot from them, they'll climb the rescuer, unconsciously. If they drown the rescuer, they gain a minute of life, then they drown themselves.

By the time a trained rescuer arrives, the biker is dead or has massive brain damage from oxygen loss. So whatever you do can only be better than doing nothing.

Rule #1 in any first-responder situation is to keep the rescuer safe. There are tons and tons of examples where rushing led to mistakes that killed the rescuer AND the patient.

First, the primary job for any rescuer is to not become another victim. Be prepared for a violent altercation with the victim.

Parent comment was addressing a drowning person victimizing the rescuer, which also seems to contradict the article.

A person who is drowning has temporarily lost their mind and will happily drown their would-be rescuer in an attempt to stay above the water. Approach a drowning person from behind and hold them above the water by their armpits.

However a rescuer with actual knowledge would be aware of the situation and would ensure they physically touch them with the object so they have to be aware of it.

Some of those people belong to watch-dog groups which may or may not have motivations aside from playing out internal "rescuer" psychodramas. Some of those people are journalists who are itching to carve out a "hard-hitting" reputation from the hides of their betters.

Physiologically, drowning people who are struggling on the surface of the water cannot stop drowning and perform voluntary movements such as waving for help, moving toward a rescuer, or reaching out for a piece of rescue equipment. They won't reach out for it, but if it happens to be within their reach they'll grab it.

I've personally witnessed the ugly mess of an overzealous rescue, a rescuer labeled assailant when the victim changes their mind or late responders are simply confused and of course violent wisdom of gathering mobs. Digitally amplifying a scream this way is serious business.

So, trading away one's soul might be considered short sighted and there's a whole argument to be had with regards to the state preventing us from making short sighted decisions, so lets say that the desert rescuer was demanding the starving life savings or something. It would certainly be a horrible person who would demand that much for saving a person's life.

Physiologically, drowning people who are struggling on the surface of the water cannot stop drowning and perform voluntary movements such as waving for help, moving toward a rescuer, or reaching out for a piece of rescue equipment.

If someone shows up and injures the attacker and the attacker makes the case that it was all just a misunderstanding or that it was an overreaction, where does that leave you and your rescuer? I'm not saying it's a bad idea or trying to start FUD, but the fact is self-defense is a very complex issue and you need to understand the implications of your actions very well before you're in a position to have to take them.

As a reasonably strong swimmer with no life saving experience - giving or receiving - this conversation is pretty fascinating, especially the casual nature experienced rescuers are saying things such as > they're not people right now This strikes me as an incredibly interesting concept. I wonder what other situations arise semi-frequently where participants temporarily abandon their people-ness? Has this notion been legally tested? If in a state of non-people-ness I drown my rescuer yet then survive, have I committed murder?

Now imagine that your rescuer, having successfully bettered Mr. Body's achievement by getting to his high point alive, now has to perform the strenuous physical labor of digging Mr. B. out of the solid packed ice, picking up his 200 pound corpse, and carrying it the entire way back down to base camp. What odds would you give our rescuer of surviving that task?

> "It seemingly goes against all a rescuer’s training" Perhaps, but only if you don't have any training as a rescuer... Rescuer safety is always the first priority. A rescuer becoming another victim is just about the worst case scenario in any operation.