'Code Blue' @ swimming pool

[hotfootingit]

Namechanged as this is outing but been here for years - Pom bears, naice ham, cutted up pear, etc

We've just got back from a holiday park and I was absolutely shocked by the amount of announcements in the pool for lost children / adults... more distressing was announcements for the lifeguards to declare a 'Code Blue' where they got everyone out of the pool to check the water for a missing child / vulnerable adult when they didn't respond to the announcement in case they were at the bottom of the pool...

Now have no problem with getting out and it's a sensible safeguard but we experienced THREE in less than two hours... that's three different vulnerable people missing for enough time to trigger a mass exodus of the pool.

Seemed to be an awful lot of missing people and friends have been shocked by it... certainly I have never experienced it anywhere else. Was I unreasonable to think it a really odd happening??

"missing for enough time to trigger a mass exodus of the pool" people drown in minutes

If it was your child and you reported them missing it's probably their first contingency. There's no time to check other areas first.

The frequency was probably just to do with it being busy

Sorry to drip feed but these people were missing longer than a few minutes - 3 or 4 announcements a few minutes apart with the same name went out before they did the code blue (I was sat relaxing in the hot tub so listening / taking note)...

I'm sure their loved ones were frantic but seriously - this is a swimming pool - how do so many people get separated?

I've swam a lot, in a lot of different pools and never experienced this.

Three times in two hours is a lot. Either there were a lot of people not adequately supervising their children or the pool were really OTT on the code blue thing.

I take it none of these people were at the bottom if the pool? Did they turn up? Where were they?

YANBU to think it was odd.

I have never experienced it before either yet also swam in lots of different places / pools.

No one turned up in the bottom of the pool thank goodness but they seemed to keep everyone out until the person was found (more announcements, lifeguards checking their group of people)...

"Code Blue" sounds v disturbing.

Health and safety. Cant risk being sued!

There was a recent drowning. Staff will be on higher alert.

Oh no Silver - is that true? How awful
As I said it was a reasonable safeguard - without any doubt - just shocked that so many vulnerable people went missing, especially in a pool

Depends on the age and swimming abilities of the child. Can't find your young child who can't swim independently after a few minutes? Shit. Can't find your 15 year old who is a strong swimmer after 30 minutes? They're probably fine.

I agree - code blue seemed to be when it was a more vulnerable swimmer - there was loads of announcements without code blue...
I just thought it was odd as a swimming pool is somewhere you are extra vigilant/ stick together

I've had similar in the sea but only once. A paddle board floated in without its owner and the sea was cleared while the surf lifesavers went in. It was fine though.

Never in a swimming pool though

There was a little boy who drowned recently at a holiday park. As a PP said, they are probably on a higher alert than usual.

www.plymouthherald.co.uk/news/tributes-paid-boy-4-who-398024

The truly scary thing is that a person struggling in water doesn't look the way you'd expect.

They go very still and become almost invisible in a pool full of people.

Good lifeguards know what to watch out for but in a packed pool it's not an easy task so clearing the pool seems like a fairly sensible option given what happened to that little boy.

At least the pool were vigilant even if it was down to poor supervision from responsible adults.

Code blue at the leisure centre where I worked meant first aid needed

Was there a group of higher-needs people there?

What kind of pool was it? A plain rectangle (cuboid) or one with waves, waterfalls, rainclouds, slides etc?

I had a basic lifeguarding qualification through my job and whilst we were taught about mass evacuations, I didn't ever witness one. For a start, one of the issues with them is that as everyone exits, it's harder to spot someone in trouble as opposed to if people carry on as normal.

In many years of swimming I've never seen a pool evacuated! Sounds OTT or poorly managed

It was a bit pool with many elements to it - a Children's bit, lazy river, lots of features, spray guns, etc - totally appreciate that it would be difficult to spot a problem and the lifeguards (of which there were numerous) were all attentive and seemed really highly trained...
There were a huge mix of ages and people there including some with disabilities (the disable changing rooms were in constant use and needed a radar key) so it was sensible to have a procedure like the code blue.

However I still don't understand how so many people got seperated - especially if the code blue is for times that the person is more vulnerable due to age / ability to swim - it's a swimming pool not a supermarket, water can kill... I was just surprised

that devon drowning wa terrible on the news local it said it was aftr hours i mean why was a year old in there unsupervisd

anyway prob coz of that op some places being strict

I vividly remember as a kid going to Leith Waterworld in Edinburgh and a girl just disappearing under the water. She didn't flail or shout or appear to be struggling she just dropped. Thankfully they got her out and breathing again but that has always stuck with me, how fucking fast it happens. I do see your point about people getting separated though, it's odd it happened so much but good that the staff are on top of it.

Well, I think you know you're being unreasonable as, as a normal person, you'd rather get out of the pool every 10 minutes for a code blue rather than learn someone's drowned.

As I said, I had the most elementary of qualifications and can't imagine having the responsibility of looking after people at a pool like you describe.

In a vaguely similar situation today, I had to tell a member of staff that it is always better safe than sorry.

Even if you simply emailed suggesting that the staff were overly cautious but then read next week that someone had drowned, you'd take it badly.

Annoying but surely the definiton of a first world problem. It does sound unusual though.

Could be something as simple as a PA not working so them not getting the message.

I never came across it in years of lifeguarding either, but it was a good few years ago. What was surprisingly common was parents keeping absolutely no eye on their under-8 non swimmers. We always spotted the child, the tricky bit was finding their grownup.

Sunshine I had no problem getting out as often as they needed to - I thought the code blue was a good safeguard but I suppose I am being a little judgy that it was needed at all - why are people becoming seperated so often in the first place?

All the PAs were working - that's how they co-ordinated the code blue with the lifeguards - a team leader was on a balcony surveying and after x number of announcements and still no sign a call went out for the lifeguards to 'Code Blue'. It was a well oiled machine - very impressive to see and no, again, I didn't mind getting out

I've had it twice happen at the swimming pool. One was for someone near drowning. The other for a missing child. Very impressive, well oiled machine. It's the sort with 3 pools, one with a wave machine, a child area, and a couple of flumes and slides.

I've heard announcements for people to make themselves known or go to reception, but never seen an evacuation. And even at the big pool near me with lots of flumes and different areas, I don't think I've ever noticed more than 1 or 2 people being called on PA over a 2-3 hour session. It does seem strange for that many people to be getting separated.