Teagan Odders had just settled into her seat over the wing on a Southwest Airlines flight bound for DC when a shriek rang out.
Just after the cabin door closed in preparation for takeoff, a commotion spurred an announcement. While still on the tarmac, the crew of the November 24 flight from Milwaukee needed the help of anyone with medical training—and fast.
When the environmental science major looked in the aisle and didn’t see anyone get up, she wondered aloud whether she could help. “I’m a lifeguard,” said Odders, who works a few shifts per week at AU’s Reeves Aquatic Center. “I don’t know if that counts.”
It did, her seatmate affirmed. Odders joined a small group helping a flight attendant experiencing a tonic-clonic seizure—which causes a loss of consciousness and violent muscle contractions—at the front of the plane. After another passenger administered anti-seizure medication, Odders led the group in rolling the flight attendant onto his side to open his airways and protect his head.
“I’d always known that this was a good skill set to have,” says Odders, “but this made me think about how I could actually help in an emergency. I’m 18, and yet, I was the most qualified medical personnel on that plane.”
AU’s 36 student lifeguards are required to undergo a physical test and 28 hours of training, including the Red Cross’s CPR/AED for Professional Rescuers, which offers guidance on how to respond to such medical crises as heart attacks, respiratory distress, airway obstructions, and seizures.
Training doesn’t end once the lifeguards complete the requirements necessary to don a whistle, however. Every week, AU aquatics facility manager Brenton Taylor randomly audits his staff by throwing a 6-foot mannequin named Wet Eddie into the pool. The exercise simulates how lifeguards would jump into action if a real swimmer needed help.
Odders says lugging a waterlogged Wet Eddie out of the pool prepared her for an unexpected situation while traveling. “A good part of audits is you don’t know when it’s going to happen. It helps you get used to pushing through potential panic.”