A life saved

It is with much pride that I write this letter, but also with a little sadness. Sadness due to the fact that in this cynical world we live in, no one seems to think that good news is worth reporting or much acknowledged.

On August 17, while holidaying in Xlendi Bay, my husband noticed a swimmer in shallow water encountering difficulties. The lady in question appeared not to be moving and Derek, my husband, rushed in the sea fully clothed to give assistance. No one else on the beach seemed to have noticed the lady's distress or, if anyone else had, they seemed rooted to the spot.

Derek took charge by pulling the lady out of the sea and laying her on the ground. After checking to see if she was breathing - she was not - and checking for a pulse - she had none - Derek started CPR on the spot. While all this was going on, my son, also named Derek happened on the scene, leading some diving students out of the water after their dive.

He assessed the situation and immediately went to his father's aid and between them they continued doing compressions and the other concentrating on rescue breaths.

After what seemed like several long minutes, the lady's eyes flickered and she started to breathe on her own. By this time an ambulance arrived and whisked her off to Gozo General Hospital.

My family and I visited the lady a few days later to see how she was doing. Thankfully she is well on her way to making a full recovery.

I believe it was thanks to the prompt actions of both my husband and son that the woman is alive today. That lady was dead and my Dereks changed the outcome to a more joyous one. Thanks to the PADI Rescue course and PADI EFR course learnt while diving at Moby Dives diving school in Xlendi, my two heroes had the skills needed to help someone in dire distress.

It angers me when diving accidents resulting in fatalities are splashed across the newspapers generating an irrational fear of this sport. It is thanks to this sports' intensive training programme that my lads knew what to do and to do it well. Maybe by printing this letter, it will even the odds a bit.

What I want to end with is that I would like my husband and son, my Dereks, to know, publicly, just how proud I am of them both and just how much they mean to me, for what is important is the fact that a life was saved on August 17 and God blessed me by allowing me to witness the event.