Pregnant Former Lifeguard Saves Drowning Boy at Minnesota Lake

A file image shows a man submerged. Suetot/Pixabay

After fate guided her to a Minnesota lake on a Sunday, when she would usually be in church, a former lifeguard saved a drowning boy in her first-ever rescue—at 33 weeks pregnant.

Mother-of-two Stephanie Swedberg had decided to head down to Crystal Beach Park in Burnsville on July 21, to help her 3-year-old twins learn to float—hoping to protect them from drowning—reported Fox 9.

But it was one of the boys playing nearby in the water—aged between 10 and 14—who needed her life-saving expertise.

“I didn’t really realize anything was off until I saw one of the moms fully dressed, sprinting into the water and screaming for somebody to help her son. Then I looked over and I saw one of the boys unable to keep his head above the water,” Swedberg told Fox 9.

She swam out and rescued him.

Crystal Beach, Burnsville, Minnesota Screenshot/Google Maps

According to the news station, as a woman of faith Swedberg believes she was there for a reason, saying she would normally be in church, but had decided to watch the service online instead.

Silent Killer

The incident happened quietly. “He wasn’t screaming… he was just thrashing around,” Swedberg told Fox 9.

Despite being a life-or-death situation, whilst they may spark screams and shouts from witnesses, drownings are often silent, as the victim fights for air, with no breath or opportunity to cry out.

Last month, a Texas mother whose 7-year-old son drowned within arms reach recalled how he slipped under the water unnoticed—as a warning to other parents.

Kailey Holian’s message is simple: drowning is silent.

“There’s no splashing, no yelling for help,” wrote Holian in an emotional Facebook post. “Nothing about drowning will catch your attention until it’s too late.”

Holian’s non-verbal autistic son, Weston, died three years ago after drowning in a swimming pool.

She was able to revive her son with CPR before EMS arrived, but on the ambulance ride to the hospital, Holian said medics intubated and sedated him “as a precaution”—he never woke up.

Holian said she was standing just three feet away, telling other kids to be careful in the water, while her son stood on the pool step.

“In my head, I was close enough to him to ‘hear’ any struggling. I was close enough to feel water splash on me if he were to struggle and splash,” she wrote in the June 12 post. “But none of that happened because drowning is silent.”

They waited for three days, praying for a miracle.

“I was prepared to wait for the rest of my life. But he had lost all brain function.”

The Needville, Texas, mother said that it breaks her heart every time she hears of a child drowning.

“Whatever you’ve seen on TV, just forget,” she wrote. “It doesn’t happen that way. We have been conditioned to look for certain distress signals that just won’t happen.”

“Drowning happens under water. You can’t yell for help under water and you can’t splash below the surface.

Most Common Cause of Child Death

Drowning is the leading cause of death for young children, according to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC)—mostly due to falling into a pool or being left in a bathtub.

Of the 3,786 drownings in 2016, more than 12 percent were children age 4 and younger, according to the National Safety Council. Bathtubs, toilets, and even buckets also can pose a danger for very young children.

“Most parents think water safety is first and foremost on their minds whenever they are enjoying summer activities with their young kids. But when the unthinkable happens, caregivers often say, ‘I only looked away for a second.’”