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A young person's hand sticks up from the water.

At first, it seemed like any regular sunny day in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. An apartment complex security camera captured the sun shining over the wispy palm trees. A six-year-old boy named Oscar was on vacation with his family and was lounging on an inflatable raft in a pool. Unsteady, however, he slips off the raft into the water, and frighteningly—he can't swim.

His cousin, standing at the edge of the pool, also can't swim, and luckily had the foresight to not jump in after him. Two people who can't swim is definitely worse than one. Panicked, Oscar flails and slips under, while his cousin screams for help. It was terrifying. He tries to push the raft over to Oscar, yelling, "Oscar, grab it!" But he can't.

At the same time, Roque Ivan Ocampo Calderon, who was doing maintenance on the property, happened to hear the screams. In the video, he runs out with absolutely no hesitation, takes his shoes off, and jumps in. He quickly gathers Oscar in his arms and swims him to safety, though he needed the cousin's help to lift him out of the pool. But here's the kicker: Calderon admitted he wasn't a very good swimmer either.

What happened next was a masterclass in first-aid: Ivan begins administering CPR and, quite possibly, according to news reports, saved Oscar's life.

At this point, people nearby began to gather to see how they can help. Oscar's mom had been notified and soon she can be seen frantically running to the scene as any mother would. Police and EMTs arrive, but Oscar is not out of the woods. As shown on Inside Edition, a police officer asks how long Oscar was in the water, and Calderon answers, "Maybe two minutes." He's taken to the hospital and, after two days, was able to return home, a healthy boy.

- YouTubewww.youtube.com

As reported by Yahoo News, in a news press conference, Calderon relays, "I started doing CPR. The kid wasn’t breathing, but I kept doing it and doing it until he started breathing again."

The ample news coverage of the story spawned many articles and reports under many of which commenters are hailing Calderon a true hero. Quite a few are also moved by how relatable this scary moment is—not only to the viewer, or any parents out there, but also to the journalists. One notes (referring to Inside Edition), "I've never seen an anchor get emotional like that, She was almost crying."

Another gives a note that could be helpful should someone else encounter someone drowning: "He took his shoes off first. Always take off your shoes—they can collect water and inhibit you from creating a surface to push off underwater. Even advanced swimmers can have difficulty swimming with shoes on, let alone saving someone else too."

pool, swimming, safety, water, heroA picture of a swimming pool. Photo by Wesley Tingey on Unsplash

And one reminds us that, despite the judgment some seemed to impose in the comments, this could happen to anyone. "I vividly remember being 7 years old and jumping into the deep end, not knowing how to swim. Thankfully, someone was there to save me… Learning to swim is a life skill that every child should have the chance to develop early. It can make all the difference."

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Dignity Health

On Oct. 1, 2017, in Las Vegas, 59 people were killed and over 500 more were injured in a mass shooting. It was devastating, but that didn't stop people from trying to help.

"People were calling nonstop to our ER, and I'm sure every other ER, asking if they could show up and donate blood," recalls Carolyn Smith, an ER trauma nurse at Dignity Health in Henderson, Nevada. "People were showing up at the door to donate blood at 2 in the morning."

Photo by Master Sgt. Patricia F. Moran/U.S. Air National Guard.


Smith has been a first responder on the scene at many disasters, both natural and human-caused. One thing she's noticed is that there are often countless people who want to offer their assistance. This was especially apparent in Houston after Hurricane Harvey.

"It was a very humbling experience to see people, not only in Houston, but from all over the state, coming to help no matter what color, what race, what religion, what tax bracket," she recalls.

Obviously giving blood after one of these tragedies is helpful, but what about in the immediate aftermath of something like a shooting? What can you do if someone is actually bleeding out in front of you?

It's easy to feel helpless in the presence of such a situation, but it's in those precise moments that you can be the most helpful.

There are simple steps you can take to try to save someone's life if they're bleeding uncontrollably. They just require some know-how.

This graphic comes from a program called "Stop the Bleed," which was launched after the Sandy Hook shooting in 2012. It's designed to teach people the basic skills needed to stop a serious bleed from becoming life-threatening.

"They found that there were a significant number of what we call 'preventable deaths' [at Sandy Hook]," explains Dr. Sean Dort, a surgeon at Dignity Health. "If somebody knew the skills we're teaching, they would've been able to save lives."

The free Stop the Bleed program offers explicit guides to help prepare civilians to act in a situation where someone is bleeding profusely. You can also access free bleeding control classes in every state, where trained professionals teach you how to properly put on a tourniquet and pack a wound.

Teachers regularly oversee classes at capacity, which makes sense given that 2017 saw more mass shootings than any other year in modern U.S. history. Gun-shot wounds have become far too commonplace, and people seem to be tired of feeling helpless in the face of them.

A woman putting a tourniquet on a practice dummy. Photo via Dignity Health.

Medical professionals like Smith and Dort hope this impulse to be prepared will be a trend that continues.

"We need to embed [bleeding control] into the American subconscious the way CPR is," says Dort.

If bleeding control was taught, alongside CPR, in schools across the country, kids would head into adulthood armed with two vital sets of lifesaving skills. As a result, future mass shootings and other catastrophic events may not be nearly so devastating.

The more people on the scene equipped to stop bleeding, the better chance victims have of surviving until medical professionals can get to them.

It could be the difference between giving over to panic and turning a potentially bleak situation around.

For more information on how to stop bleeding, check out the video below:

Can disco help you save someone's life?

Maybe!


GIF by "Saturday Night Fever."

A fun PSA video by the American Heart Association is spreading the word about CPR in a seriously catchy way.

The scene: A family's having a normal dinner conversation — you know, about how to give CPR properly. (Don't you discuss that at dinner?)

Mom asks the question:

Kids roll their eyes, as kids often do:

But despite the eyerolling, the kids answer correctly with the two vital steps for giving CPR.

First, if you see a teen or adult collapse suddenly, call 911.

Second, push hard and fast at the center of the chest at the rate of at least 100 beats per minute.

And that's where the fun starts. 100 beats per minute. What exactly does that feel like?

Well apparently, the iconic 1970s song "Stayin' Alive" provides a convenient beat for giving CPR! You can actually give properly paced chest compressions to the beat of the song.

GIFs by American Heart Association.

Long live disco! Literally.

Keeping "Stayin' Alive" in the back of your mind could just be the ticket to actually saving someone's life. Take a look: