3 staffers save man at Ellis Porter pool

Three members of the Ellis Porter Pool staff are credited with saving the life of a man on Sunday afternoon.

According to Jefferson City Parks Director Bill Lockwood, the incident occurred around 4 p.m.

A 21-year-old man, who was with a group from the Missouri National Guard, swam underwater, the length of the pool.

Lifeguard Cayce Heiberger noticed the man was in distress and pulled him out of the water.

The victim had a faint pulse, so Heiberger and fellow lifeguard Spencer Wolf began CPR procedures.

After a short time, lifeguard Sam Dudenhoeffer used a defibrillator and delivered one shock to the victim.

The victim's pulse came back, and he regained consciousness.

"When emergency crews got on the scene, the victim was alert and talking and they took him to a local hospital to be checked out," Jefferson City Fire Chief Matt Schofield said. "We want to get out to the public that if they are ever involved in a near drowning incident it's always recommended that the victim be taken to the hospital to be checked out because there are a lot of internal things that could be wrong, but don't show up until later."

Lockwood said emergency personnel later returned to the pool to let the staff know that the victim was expected to make a complete recovery because of their actions.

"What happened is known as shallow water blackout," Lockwood said. "A person swims too long underwater, they can pass out. The victim began to suck water into their lungs. We've had a few other incidents like this in the past."

Lockwood also said all park pools have a defibrillator on site for these types of emergencies.

"The staff at the pool did all the right things," Schofield said. "Before the pool season starts we do joint training to practice this type of scenario. This was very good work by the staff at the pool and tells you how critical time is because seconds matter to reviving a person."

"This was a high-stress situation, but for teenagers even more so," Lockwood said. "We will go over this to see if there is anything we can do to improve to handle situations like this in the future."