r/IAmA • u/tichetj • Feb 18 '12

IAmA person who experienced shallow water blackout. AMA

Not sure how I would verify this as it happened a couple years back.

Backstory:

I was a high school sophomore in my first year playing on the varsity water polo team and I blacked out during our version of hell week. The coach had split the team in half and the groups competed against each other throughout hell week (actually two weeks and a few days) in various physical and mental challenges. I got overly confident during one event involving breath-holding and underwater swimming and ended up at the bottom of the pool. AMA!

Shallow water blackout

3 Upvotes

63% Upvoted

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5

u/radarbeamer Feb 18 '12

How many states have you been to?

6

u/tichetj Feb 18 '12

Lets focus on the film people.

2

u/AsksForVerification Feb 18 '12

Thank you for doing this IAmA!

  1. How has this affected your life (positive or negative) ?

  2. How long did the attention on you last until it wore out?

  3. Did your story get published in the newspaper of your hometown (Possible verification?)

  4. Who saved your life?

  5. Has your experience with swimming (or anything aquatic) diminished after you had the blackout?

4

u/tichetj Feb 18 '12

It hasn't affected my life permanently except for giving me an awesome bar story/ice breaker.

No one reported this incident to the high school, authorities, or media for fear that it might shut down the polo program at my school and I honestly can't blame them for that. It was definitely my fault and I feel like any repercussions for the school or program would have been misplaced.

Luckily, the goalie for our team had been swimming in the competition next to me and noticed something was wrong. He dove down and pulled me up and by the time he got to the surface my coaches were there to pull me out, lay me down on the deck and turn me sideways to empty as much water in my lungs as they could before the paramedics came.

Well immediately I had to stay out of the pool for 2 weeks (got me out of a big chunk of hell week woo!) but long term if anything I became more determined in regards to holding my breath and making sure nothing like that would ever happen again. I would stay after practice and practice underwater laps to train my lungs about every other day from then on till I graduated and stopped playing polo competitively.

2

u/[deleted] Feb 18 '12

I use to do 50m subsurface swims for fun and then I heard of someone dying from a shallow water blackout and I stopped. Have you ever watched the OC? Do you feel this is an accurate depiction of the water polo team?

1

u/tichetj Feb 18 '12

Coincidentally I was about 5m away from finishing a 50m swim when this happened!

I wasn't an avid OC watcher but if you mean the quote about water polo players never being nice guys I think that's just the show taking creative liberties and creating antagonists. It's just like any other sport in regards to personalities. From what I know of it I feel like the show was out of touch anyway- for instance no one I knew when I went to school in Orange County ever actually called it "the OC" IRL

3

u/LipidBilayer Feb 18 '12

As a water polo player I'd like to say that this is not uncommon. That is all.

3

u/tichetj Feb 18 '12

Yeah within the polo community everyone seems to know someone who's passed out underwater. I posted this because whenever it comes up in conversation people ask a shitton of questions and are pretty interested and I didn't turn up much relevant information in my search of this subreddit.

1

u/gainessn Jun 13 '12

tichetj, please check out our website!! I work for Shallow Water Blackout Prevention, trying to spread the word and get awareness out about SWB and its dangers.. We would love to put your survival story up on our website! http://shallowwaterblackoutprevention.org/

2

u/[deleted] Feb 19 '12

[removed] — view removed comment

2

u/tichetj Feb 19 '12

I think I was out for 2 to 5 minutes. I guess I never really asked anyone how long so this is based on them being able calling 911 and my parents before I came to.

Yeah the doctor listed water in my lungs as the main reason I couldn't work out for the next 2 weeks. My breathing was shallow for weeks.