James Chadwick, surf lifesaver, makes his first resuscitation — in Malaysia

A three-year-old girl is pulled from a pool with no pulse, no breath. How does James Chadwick handle his first emergency?

TWAM-20150425 EMBARGO FOR TWAM 25 April 2015 NO REUSE WITHOUT PERMISSION Surf rescue pic : Alan McDonald

When you’re a surf lifesaver, who knows when The Moment will come? When you find somebody teetering on the cliff-edge of death, and it’s up to you to reach out and pull them back?

James Chadwick’s been training in resuscitation and first aid since he was 14, but in five years of beach patrols at Fremantle and Sorrento he hasn’t had a single emergency. For him, The Moment came on a family holiday at a five-star resort in Malaysia last year, when he was asleep on a sun-lounger.

“James! James! First aid!” his mum shouted, and he woke to see the limp body of a three-year-old girl being carried from the pool, ashen blue, frothing at the nose and mouth. He and another Aussie guest, also a surf lifesaver, assessed her. No breathing. No pulse. Chadwick began CPR. Her body was so tiny, he used only two fingers of each hand for the chest compressions. He was “on autopilot”, he says; despite the horror of the situation his mind was empty except for counting: 30 compressions, two breaths; repeat.

Chadwick, 19, pictured in a shot from the National Photographic Portrait Prize, has struggled in the six months since — the experience triggered post-traumatic stress issues — but he’s dealing with them, and planning to study physiotherapy at Curtin Uni. He wants to work with athletes.

The girl, Cherelle, lived. On the second cycle of compressions she gasped and began coughing up water. She spent two days in intensive care. Doctors said she’d been underwater for three minutes but there was no brain damage; a miracle, really. Her Malaysian family later took the Chadwicks out for dinner, and she was running around laughing. It’s something James will never forget: “It was amazing — we’d given them back her life.”