Our MD Paul Brown is currently in China on a fact finding mission - whilst in Beijing he couldn't pass the opportunity to go and have a look around the iconic Beijing National Aquatics Centre.
Poolview would work well in there!
Beijing National Aquatics Centre
A seven-year-old girl has died after being pulled unconscious from a holiday park swimming pool during a children's birthday party.
The girl, who has not yet been named, suffered 'life threatening injuries' as a result of being underwater at the Waveney River Centre in Burgh St Peter near Great Yarmouth, Norfolk.
She was hauled out of the indoor pool at around noon today and taken to the James Paget Hospital in Gorleston, Norfolk, by ambulance. However, she died from her injuries a short time later at 4pm.
Waveney River Centre
The girl was a guest at the pool party which was being supervised by parents. The holiday park confirmed it had not provided a lifeguard as the pool was being privately-hired out at the time.
Norfolk Police confirmed the death is being treated as unexplained, but said it was not suspicious.
Attempts were made to resuscitate the girl at the scene before she was taken to hospital.
The Waveney River Centre offers accommodation for holidaymakers in what it described on its website as luxury lodges, a hotel and static caravans.
The holiday park in the heart of the Norfolk Broads has a newly-refurbished heated indoor pool and indoor spa.
An East of England Ambulance Service spokesman said a rapid response vehicle and two ambulances were sent to help the young girl.
An East Anglian Air Ambulance helicopter was also sent to the holiday park in case she needed to be airlifted to hospital.
But the spokesman said that the girl was taken to a local hospital by land ambulance in a serious condition while 'still showing signs of life'.
Confirming the girl had died this afternoon, Norfolk Police said in a statement: 'Police can confirm that a girl has died following an incident in Burgh St Peter this afternoon.
'Officers were called by ambulance staff at 12pm to Waveney River Centre near Beccles, following reports a seven-year-old child had been found unconscious in a swimming pool.
'The girl was taken to the James Paget Hospital in Great Yarmouth but sadly died at around 4pm. Next-of-kin are aware and police are continuing to investigate.
'The death is currently being treated as unexplained but is not believed to be suspicious.'
We had a site visit today having a look to see how we can help resolve a troublesome issue with "glare".
Not an uncommon problem in swimming pools - but one that this Leisure Operator is prepared to address by using our Poolview Safer Swimming System.
Poolview - provides "Additional Essential Vision" to Lifeguards
And so........ it is on to Wandsworth! The installation of a Poolview™ Safer Swimming System in this pool has been quite a few years in the planning. It's a pleasure to finally on site working through the complexities of installing in this challenging "older pool". Great to be here though - delivering another layer of safety and providing "Additional Essential Vision" to the Lifeguards.
Large "L"Shaped 33 yard pool with dive pit.
It is not often that the three of us get the chance to travel together as we are normally scattered separately around the UK - so it was great to bring the team together in Stavanger, Norway to meet up again with our SwimEye™ partners.
Chris Day, Paul Brown and Robin McGloughlin
The greatest misunderstanding of drowning, perpetuated by what we see on the telly, is that a drowning person actually does not look like a drowning person. Shouting and splashing? Doesn’t happen. Drowning is almost always a deceptively quiet event.
Here’s a brutal statistic: Half of all children who will drown this year will drown within a few meters of their parents. Those parents will be completely unaware anything is wrong.
The Instinctive Drowning Response takes over and this is what happens:
1. Except in rare circumstances, drowning people are physiologically unable to call out for help. The respiratory system was designed for breathing. Speech is the secondary or overlaid function. Breathing must be fulfilled before speech occurs.
2. Drowning people’s mouths sink below and reappear above the surface of the water in quick succession. The mouths of drowning people are not above the surface of the water long enough for them to exhale, inhale and cry out for help. When drowning people’s mouths are above the surface, they exhale and inhale quickly as their mouths start to sink below the surface taking in water.
3. Drowning people cannot wave for help. Nature instinctively forces them to press down on the water’s surface. Pressing down on the surface of the water permits drowning people to lift their mouths out of the water to breathe.
4. Throughout the Instinctive Drowning Response, drowning people cannot voluntarily control their arm movements. Physiologically, drowning people who are struggling on the surface of the water cannot stop drowning and perform voluntary movements such as waving for help, moving toward a rescuer or reaching out for a piece of rescue equipment.
5. From beginning to end of the Instinctive Drowning Response, people’s bodies remain upright in the water with no evidence of a supporting kick. Unless rescued by a trained lifeguard, these drowning people can only struggle on the surface of the water for 20 to 60 seconds before submersion occurs.
However, this doesn’t mean that a person who is yelling for help and thrashing isn’t in real trouble. They are experiencing aquatic distress. Not always present before the Instinctive Drowning Response, aquatic distress doesn’t last long. But unlike true drowning, these victims can still assist in their own rescue by grabbing lifelines, throw rings, etc.
Look for these signs of drowning when persons are in the water:
• Head low in the water, mouth at water level
• Head tilted back with mouth open
• Eyes glassy and empty, unable to focus
• Eyes closed
• Hair over forehead or eyes
• Not using legs, vertical
• Hyperventilating or gasping
• Trying to swim in a particular direction but not making headway
• Trying to roll over on their back
• Appear to be climbing an invisible ladder
Sometimes the most common indication that someone is drowning is that they don’t look like they’re drowning. They may just look like they are treading water and looking around for safety. One way to be sure is to ask them, “Are you all right?” If they can answer, they are probably OK. If they return a blank stare, you may have less than 30 seconds to get to them to safety.
Parents, children playing in the water make noise. When they go quiet, you need to get to them and find out why.
Lovely morning to conduct a site survey in Kent for Poolview. This was one of four bodies of water we surveyed at this facility for a future Poolview Safer Swimmer install. Some glare issues, some areas that management would like to have available for use more often - Poolview will provide "Additional Essential Vision" to Lifeguards
The incident happened at a holiday complex in Torrevieja
Another tragedy to focus the mind as you set off on holiday this summer with your loved ones.
A four-year-old boy from the UK has drowned in a swimming pool in Spain, the Foreign Office has confirmed.
The boy died before emergency services arrived at a holiday complex in Torrevieja on the Costa Blanca on Wednesday, local authorities said.
It is believed he had only recently arrived at the resort with his parents.
The Foreign Office said it was providing support to the boy's family. "Our thoughts are with them at this difficult time," a spokesman added.
The Easter break is over - so it's back to "porridge" with a marathon run of SIX Poolview™ installations to be completed before the middle of May.
Starting off in Buckinghamshire before heading off to London for four weeks then back up to Leicestershire.
This pool has some interesting blind spots and glare issues which our Poolview™ Safer Swimming System will remedy. Providing "Additional Essential Vision" to Lifeguards
AN IRISH TOURIST in his 20s has died while on holiday in Spain.
He died in the swimming pool of the holiday apartments he had checked into with family and friends hours earlier.
Many of us have read over the past week or so, the results from the inquest about the tragic swimming pool death of young Jane Bell, from Galashiels in the Scottish Borders, who died after getting into difficulty at the Dalmeny Hotel pool in St Annes, Lancashire on 14 August 2014.
A tragedy in it’s own right, but a greater tragedy simply because it could have been prevented.
The inquest heard that “there was no trained lifeguard on duty at the time” Even though the alarm was raised – it appears that no-one could do anything to help in time.
Coroner, Mr Wilson told the hearing at Blackpool Town Hall there may have been a lack of focus on the welfare of people using the pool at the time and he questioned whether financial reasons were behind the lack of trained lifeguards.
In my experience the majority of hotels, spas and health clubs do operate with trained Lifeguards. However, the designated Lifeguards or Responders whilst on duty are more often than not tasked with many other duties to perform as part of their normal job description.
The RLSS provide a number of options and levels of qualifications for staff positioned within the leisure industry in situations such as this and described fully on their website www.rlss.org.uk - these are vital qualifications to have to help ensure the safety of your swimmers.
At Poolview Ltd we offer a range of technological safer swimming systems for every operational type, shape and size of pool. The one single thing that we rely on to make ALL of our systems functional is a fully qualified and trained lifeguard or 1st Responder. Someone has to make the rescue!
All the alarms and alerts in the world can be “ringing aloud” – but if you don’t have a staff member who can get into the pool and effect a rescue – all systems fail!
Our technological solutions for non-lifeguarded swimming pools include Sentag, SwimEye™ and Bluefox. Each has its own merits, individual characteristics and methods by which an alarm is activated. But most importantly, each will alert the designated lifeguard or responder (who is perhaps working in the gym, reception or even cleaning), to the fact that someone in their swimming pool is in difficulty and needs immediate assistance.
For further information or an informal discussion, please do not hesitate to contact me directly on 077 6874 6789robinmcgloughlin@poolview.co.uk. We are here to help.
Following the tragic events in Ireland last week it is worth watching this video.
It could save yours and your family's life!
The Resqme Car Escape Tool you can get on Amazon for just £10 - Hang it from the rear-view mirror!
Excellent video produced by St John Ambulance - well worth a look.
Some great messaging coming over loud and clear during our interview with BBC radio Bristol last week around "Additional Essential Vision" for Lifeguards #saferswimmingsystems #poolsafety #radiostar
On site today in Leicestershire as the new swimming pool with a moving floor nears completion. We have installed our flush mounted camera plates which allows the moving floor to pass smoothly over the cameras themselves.
Filling of the pool with water will commence later in the week
Poolview Safer Swimming Systems - providing "Additional Essential Vision" for Lifeguards
Poolview in Leicestershire
Sometimes on my travels you get to see some swimming pools with really "quirky" design features - which I am sure at the time was thought to be brilliant idea!
I have never seen "pillars" like this in a pool to demarcate the end of a 25metre pool - something to kick off or do your tumble turns from!
Creates "excellent" blind spots for the Lifeguard to work around.
Loving "The Piers" at the shallow end!
The need for drowning detection and prevention systems covers many different pools in many different areas. Today we were in London, conducting a site survey on a "high end" swimming pool - looking at our Poolview Plus™ Computer intelligent solution for the detection of drowning accidents in swimming pools.
The fact is, that a small body of water can take your life, no matter your country of origin, colour of skin, nor the size of your wealth.
Poolview - "here to make a difference"
On site in Northamptonshire, in another pool, on another week, another Monday and another night.
The site is ready for our latest Poolview Safer Swimming System installation.
The van is unloaded and the tools and team are ready to go - the lifeguards await those additional "eyes" - not long now - let's go!
Sometimes we have to build and do the most unusual things within a pool surround! Who want just a camera stuck on a pole 3metres in the air?
Well done to Paul Brown for this ingenious Parrot on a Perch Cam. It's good to have fun too :-)
Looking more like a banqueting hall than a beautifully restored swimming pool, I was delighted to be invited to have a look around this wonderful facility whilst visiting the area. The enthusiasm and warmth from the staff was palpable as well as the look of pride on their faces as I was given the tour.
With its high vaulted ceilings and wonderful architecture, the natural light brings to life all the classic features - it really does look like a very pleasant place to do a few lengths!
