When the whistle blows, Tanev Goel is ready to jump to the rescue.
Goel is a student at the Rutland Senior Secondary School’s Lifeguard Academy and spends two days a week at the YMCA H2O Adventure + Fitness Centre in Kelowna, B.C., where academy students run drills that prepare them for real life scenarios.
“The simulations are meant to be real, they don’t know what is about to happen we run them through knowledge, skill and judgment-training sessions with different types of victims that range from drowning non-swimmers to unconscious spinal patients,” said lifeguarding teacher at Rutland Senior Secondary School, Allen McNabb.
Goel is in his first year of the program and he has already made a life-saving rescue while on a family vacation a few weeks ago.
“Out of nowhere, this lady starts screaming in the back of the plane. Everybody starts panicking. I was so scared it was crazy. I didn’t know what was going on. I take out my earbuds. I look behind me. There’s this kid he’s turning purple,” said Goel.
Goel says that the family of the choking boy did not speak English so it was hard to communicate, but he asked permission and was able to get consent to step in.
But the 16-year-old did not give up.
“Then I hear everything. I see a piece of food come out of his mouth and everything just comes back to life. He looked at me with this sigh of relief. I looked at him with a sigh of relief. Everybody starts cheering. It was a phenomenal moment for me.”
While Goel was able to utilize what he learned, he isn’t the only student to become a young hero. He is one of many who have been part of the program that began in 2018 and has trained more than 80 students, 20 per cent of whom have gone on to become professional lifeguards — which Goel also hopes to be one day.
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