Quick-thinking lifeguard rescues Palmer teen

PALMER — Ed Nutter had been tracking the boy swimming in the deep end of the Palmer Pool next to Palmer High School for a few minutes Tuesday.

The boy was holding his breath, swimming underwater. Lifeguards tend to want to keep their eye on those kinds of swimmers.

“He was on the opposite side of the pool from where I was at. I climbed out of the guard chair and walked over to the other side of the pool,” he said. “By the time I’d gotten over there he didn’t attempt to resurface and was motionless.”

That’s when Nutter said his training snapped in. He blew his whistle and jumped into the pool, confident that the other lifeguards would clear the pool for him.

He had a rescue tube with him. The tube is made of Styrofoam and floats on the surface with a line connected to the lifeguard. Once he got to the boy he started pulling on the line.

“You pull on the strap and it’s almost like climbing a rope,” he said. “Once you get to the top you take that tube and stuff it under your victim.”

In short order he had the boy out of the pool and started working to revive him. Nutter said the boy’s breathing was erratic for three minutes then stopped for 20 or 30 seconds. Those were a long few minutes. Once the breathing stopped, Nutter said, he went to start CPR.

“As soon as I opened his airway and went to put his rescue mask on him he took what I would call his first continuous breath,” Nutter said.

Nutter is a lifeguard and a swimming teacher. This is actually a second career for him.

“I grew up farming and ranching in South Dakota,” Nutter said. “I started lifeguarding when I had a back injury.”

He said his back injury sent him to the pool for physical therapy. While there he signed up for life guarding classes.

“Workers comp was kind of jerking me around and I said, ‘Hey I’m done with this, I’m going to go work at the pool,’” Nutter said.

And now he’s been a lifeguard for 22 years. He said he loves the work and wouldn’t have been doing it so long if he didn’t.

Tuesday’s rescue happened at around 7:30 p.m. during an open swim time slot. The rescued boy, Stephen Warta, 17, was there with his mother, father and siblings. In a Mat-Su Borough press release recounting the rescue, Warta’s mother, Diane Warta, said she’s a registered nurse, but when her boy came out of the water blue she held back.

“I thought, ‘They’re in charge,’” Diane Warta said. “They were very professional, very aware of what was going on in the pool.”

Her son was back at the pool swimming the next day. As for what exactly happened, Nutter’s boss, Palmer Pool Manager Paige Appelo-Dilley, said it may have been a phenomenon known as shallow water blackout, which causes swimmers to lose consciousness, according to the borough press release.

Whatever happened, Nutter said it was a singular experience for him. He’s had to reach into the pool to pull people out or jump in to get them, but he’s never done one of these deepwater-style rescues before. He said his response was solely a result of his training, both in those lifeguard classes and at ongoing training lifeguards undergo.

“You hope that this never happens and you train for it, and I was really relieved after the fact and looking back that the training was there,” Nutter said.

He said that since the rescue he’s gotten a few handshakes and pats on the back. Diane Warta stopped by with a plate of cinnamon buns.

“There’s been plenty of appreciation shown,” Nutter said. “It’s been a little more active and congratulatory than normal.”

Contact Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.