July 25, 2010 was a typical hot, sunny day at Fontana Beach on Lake Geneva. The beach was crowded because of the heat, but water conditions were calm, and lifeguards were stationed around the water to keep an eye on the bustle of activity.
River Forest’s Meredith Diamond was one of them. In her second year working as a lifeguard, Diamond, who was 17 years old at the time, worked as a beach captain at Fontana. She was scanning the water from a lifeguard tower stationed near the beach house when she spotted a man struggling out near a buoy in the water. Diamond immediately sprung to action.
“I knew that he would not be able to keep his head above water for long, so I rushed into the lake and began swimming towards him,” she said.
An American Red Cross certified lifeguard, Diamond said she barely thought twice before leaping into the water to come to the man’s rescue. “Every other week we have drills where another lifeguard goes and pretends to drown and then we save them. My Red Cross training had prepared me for everything I would ever need to do as a lifeguard,” she said. “It was almost instinctual … I did not really have time to think about what to do, I just did it.”
When Diamond reached the struggling swimmer, he was panicked and attempted to climb on her for safety. But she used her carefully cultivated rescue skills to coax her tube under the man. She then began to glide him back to shore.
“I could tell that he was having trouble breathing,” Diamond said. To keep the man calm, she continuously talked to him and assured him she wouldn’t let him sink. Once they reached the shore, other lifeguards help drag the man in.
“Once we got to shore his wife informed me that he had asthma, he had had an asthma attack out in the deep water and lost all ability to swim. Although he was a good athlete and strong swimmer there was nothing he could do,” Diamond said.
On the beach, Diamond encouraged the man to sit up while they waited for an ambulance so that water wouldn’t get into his lungs. Soon enough, emergency medical personnel arrived and loaded the man on a stretcher. And Diamond went right back to her lifeguard tower to resume her shift.
“I found out a few days later that the EMS told my boss it was lucky that I was there because had he been in the water a few seconds longer he would probably not be alive,” she said.
Her lifesaving efforts also earned her some attention from the Red Cross of Southeastern Wisconsin. In April, they awarded Diamond the Brave Heart Hero of the Year award, an honor given to only six other people annually throughout Wisconsin. She received the award at a ceremony in Milwaukee, held during a Red Cross fundraiser at Potawatomi Bingo Casino.
Diamond said she didn’t let the incident affect her too much. “I am still a lifeguard. I still work at the same beach. Nothing has really changed,” she said. She still considers her job an important one, and works hard to enforce the beach rules. “You never know when something is going to happen,” she said. If it does, Diamond said that just like the first time around, she feels well-prepared to face the challenge.
Mostly, Diamond said she’s grateful for the support system she found during last year’s rescue in her fellow guards. “This entire save was really a group effort from the lifeguards working with me at the beach, to the lifeguards on the boats, and the [EMT], as well as all the doctors he saw when he was in the hospital for the weeks after the incident.”