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Man hospitalized
after near-drowning
By Cara McDonough
Volunteers and professionals saved a man from nearly drowning at
Jordan Lake Monday after he’d been under water for nearly 15
minutes.
The 18-year-old was reportedly in critical condition Tuesday at
UNC Hospitals in Chapel Hill, where he was transported after
rescuers pulled him from the lake Monday afternoon.
The incident took place at the Parker’s Creek area of Jordan Lake
off of U.S. 64, at about 1:30 p.m., according to R.C. Duckson,
activity operations manager with the Army Corps of Engineers.
Jordan Lake’s South District Superintendent Judd Burns said
Tuesday that a report on the incident was forthcoming and the
victim’s name had not been released.
A number of county agencies assisted in the swimmer‘s rescue,
including the North Chatham Fire Department and First Health.
First Health’s Chatham County EMS director Jim Hasbrouck said that
his unit reported to the scene after the man had been removed from
the water by volunteers and park personnel, and then transported
the man to the hospital.
“In route I heard that they had gotten him out of the water and
started CPR,” he said.
Although this is the first such incident at Jordan Lake this year,
Hasbrouck said drowning incidents are usually on the rise starting
with Memorial Day weekend.
Hasbrouck said near-drowning incidences are treated the same as
any other emergency, but some specific factors do come into play.
“For us, a cardiac arrest is a cardiac arrest,” he said. “But we
do look at how cold the water is. There have been a lot of
patients who have survived in cold water near-drowning
incidences.”
He said the fact that CPR was administered so quickly after the
man was discovered was what made all the difference in this case.
“What really helped with this young man is that they found him and
started CPR,” he said.
more- See Thursday, June 1
paper:
Vol 86, No. 27
Health board abandons
district idea
By Cara McDonough
The Chatham County Health Board decided at their monthly meeting
last week to discontinue research into the possibility of becoming
a public health authority or public health district and instead
actively recruit a full-time health director.
They made their decision based on staff input, the way they’d
wanted to all along.
The board first started looking at the possibility of becoming an
authority or district, which would make them independent from
county government, after former health director Carmine Rocco left
his post after only seven months last year.
Since then retired Alamance County health director Tim Green has
served as Chatham’s interim director.
The health board over the past several months thoroughly studied
the possibility of changing the department’s make-up.
The board’s deliberations included hearing presentations from
district and authority directors in North Carolina, as well as
participating in a joint meeting with the Alamance County Health
Board to discuss the potential of the two counties joining to form
one independent health organization.
Dorothy Cilenti, former Chatham County health director, now heads
Alamance’s department.
more- See Thursday, June 1
paper:
Vol 86, No. 27
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