Wellington swimmers refused to clear Freyberg Pool as lifeguards helped unconscious patron

A group of swimmers refused to clear out of Wellington’s Freyberg Pool as lifeguards dealt with a person who fell unconscious after 30 minutes in a sauna.

The incident, and more than 30 others, has been outlined in a Local Government and Official Information and Meetings Act response about serious incidents at pools owned by the Wellington City Council during the past two years.

They include multiple fainting episodes, slips, seizures and a person who was coached through breathing after belly flopping and landing face-first in the pool when launching off the seven-metre diving platform at the Wellington Regional Aquatic Centre in Kilbirnie.

The Freyberg Pool incident, which occurred in July 2021, followed two people leaving the sauna advising that another person, who had been in the sauna with them, was unresponsive and “leaning over with no movement”.

Staff came to the person’s aid and started giving oxygen. As the person began to be revived and with an ambulance in attendance, a lifeguard tried clearing the pool.

However, as the council incident notes advised “but no-one obliged (ocean swimmers and Capital Swim Club were being difficult and not moving).”

Staff eventually managed to clear the pool and the patient was then deemed to have recovered.

After the incident a reminder was sent to all swimming groups that they were expected to leave the water immediately on request.

Advising that it was standard protocol to get people to leave the water when there was a medical emergency or other incident because lifeguards could not attend to the incident and keep an eye on the pool at the same time, Wellington City Council spokesperson, Richard Maclean noted “it appears some of the swimmers took exception to being asked to get out of the pool - presumably because they didn’t consider themselves at high risk of getting into trouble.

“It’s not clear how the situation was resolved on the day - but our (parks, sport and recreation) staff obviously know the swim clubs well so there’s regular dialogue.”

Maclean noted that thousands of people used council pools each year and there were always going to be medical emergencies, adding that lifeguards received extensive first-aid training.

Wellington Councillor Teri O’Neill, who chairs the Social, Cultural, and Economic Committee, said listening to lifeguards and recreation centres was “an essential part of keeping you and your whanau safe”, going on to say “lifeguards are legends.

“Staff over the last year in council facilities have acted swiftly and saved lives when members of the public got in trouble.”

In a separate incident, in November 2020, a person sat on the edge of the 7 metre platform at the Kilbirnie pool and pushed themselves off before landing “face down into the water”.

They made their way to the bulkhead but had a bleeding nose and sore back. They were winded and a staff member coached them through breathing. The person’s parents took them to the emergency department, but left after waiting for three hours.

A previous list of complaints about behaviour in Wellington pools revealed a father in 2018 who made his son keep swimming after two hours in the pool.

The report noted “Father pushing son to continue swimming despite him being in the pool for two hours continuously and failing to follow the lifeguard’s instructions that this was not safe, and he had to have a break.”

The father was banned from the pool.

Image: Freyberg Pool. Credit: Wellington City Council.