I did not witness Micheal's death myself, I was only 11 at the time. But the story got told a lot at the swimming pool I worked at in high school. He had attempted to do a front flip on the diving board and hit his head rather hard on the way down. Due to a combination of blood loss and water he inhaled after hitting the water, Micheal passed away shortly after the incident. It was a terrible loss for the community as a whole, and several memorials were made for him, including one in front of our pool, near the main gates.
The pool closed for the rest of the summer following Micheal's death. When the staff returned to set up the pool and train the next spring, they noticed a horrifying trend. If anyone was in the pool between when Micheal's head first hit the board (2:15 pm) and when he passed away (2:28 pm), their health would suffer. The first time it happened, there had been three people in the water, vacuuming the bottom.
The first, a lifeguard, began to vomit uncontrollably, leading her to develop a pretty bad case of dehydration which kept her in the hospital on IV fluids for two days. The second, the pool's manager, inexplicably developed hypothermia despite the weather being in the mid-70s and having only been in the water for mere minutes. The third, also a lifeguard, had it pretty bad as well. She began to experience intense spells of dizziness, before passing out as she tried to get out of the water. The other two in the pool managed to get her out, but had she been alone, she very well could have drowned as a result.
It was thought to be a fluke at the time. Only one other employee had been there at the time, and he was sent home along with the three. Rigorous testing of the water in the pool took place after, but nothing was discovered which could have caused it. It was assumed to be either a case of mass hysteria or a different type of pollutant that had since left the area. Work to ready the pool resumed. About a week later, a lifeguard recertification class was held. Luckily, only two of the thirteen in attendance were in the water between 2:15 and 2:28. The first, teaching the class, developed migraines headaches which never went away, even years after the day that they started. The second, who was a victim in a demonstration, had a strange rash form all over her body which caused her fairly severe pain for the rest of the day and into the night.
It was realized after that second incident that the timing of the medical anomalies was linked with Micheal's incident and subsequent death. A safety break was implemented between 2:10 and 2:30 during all pool activities when no one was allowed in the water. Not even the staff, who were allowed in to cool off during our other breaks could get in at that time. The system worked pretty well, most of the time. Even though some people tried to get away with jumping in, the less time they spent in the water, the less ill they would become later. Some people had no recognizable issues at all, other's would merely come into the first aid office with fairly bad cramps or headaches.
With the history of the pool and Micheal's break out of the way, let me tell you what I saw when I used to work there. I was a lifeguard there starting my junior year of high school through my sophomore year of college. I most likely would have stayed through my entire time in college had the pool not closed.
It was common knowledge between the employees that the pool was cursed, at least during Micheal's break. We weren't really supposed to tell the patrons, mostly because the owners didn't want to sound like they belonged in the loony bin. We were extremely strict about people being in the water at any of the breaks, so the only difference during Micheal's break was that the staff couldn't get in to cool off besides at the very start of the break. About once a week there would be an issue with someone not wanting to exit the water, but it was always resolved quite quickly with the threat of being kicked out.
The first year I worked there, we only had one concerning incident regarding Micheal's break. A group of tweens who thought they were pretty cool decided that they would just keep swimming through the break. They didn't leave the water until 2:20, after we had to go so far as threatening to call the police on them. Eventually, the four got out and went to their towels. Two of their group had problems severe enough that they ended up in the first aid office. One began to experience a strong ringing sound in his ears, and the other developed terrible muscle spasms in her left arm. All we could do was recommend that they go home and see if the problems went away with time, and if not, to visit the doctor. They also received a strong recommendation to stay out of the water during our breaks. We never saw them at the pool again.
No major incidents occurred for the rest of the year. The second year I worked there, on one of my days off, a 40-something woman refused to get out of the water the entire break. She finally did get out after feeling what she described as "incredibly strange" and suffered a seizure in the locker room as she was showering. She gave herself a concussion as she fell but overall avoided what could have been a much worse situation. That was the worst thing we saw before the incident which led to the pool's closure.
That incident occurred when a particularly unruly summer camp came to visit. They seemed fairly entitled and had been causing problems all day. The first safety break we hadn't had any trouble getting them out, so we figured there wouldn't be trouble when Micheal's break came, either. Oh, how we were wrong.
At first, seven of the kids refused to leave the deep end. By the end of the break, between our staff and their counselors, we had managed to get three out of the seven from the pool without having to get in ourselves. Four had remained in the water for the entire time, and several others had been inspired by their peers and jumped in after them.
The summer camp left about two minutes after the pool reopened for swimming. About half the kids had been in the water at some point during Micheal's break. Most of them developed health issues on the bus ride home. The incident has become quite the urban legend in the town, though few people connected the dots between the safety break and what followed. Stories range since they have been told over and over, but the most commonly reported issues that the children supposedly had were vomiting, dizziness/vertigo, unexplained fatigue, muscle cramps, and nosebleeds.
Two out of the four who had remained in the water during the safety break would pass away due to the issues that came up. The family of the first child was very private, and all that is known about his death is that it occurred only hours after he was picked up from camp. The second family was very vocal about what happened to their son. On the bus home from the pool, he started getting excessive sweating and fatigue. His family initially suspected some type of heat illness and tried to treat it with cold water and showers. Through the night, he only got worse. They finally took him to the ER around midnight, and his fever was 104.7 when he was admitted. Their son would spend several days in the hospital. The cause of the fever was never identified, so the medical staff could only treat his symptoms, with little success. Eventually, he succumbed to the fever, four and a half days after visiting the pool.
The pool had been closed since the day the camp came to visit and was under intense investigation. I never heard anything about what came of the investigation, but the pool never reopened. A new, indoor facility was built in its place, closer to downtown. The old pool structure sat abandoned for over a decade. Initially, it had pretty good security, which lapsed over the years until a chain-link fence was the only thing preventing people from getting in.
I stayed in my hometown after college, on the other side of the town from the pool. I never married, but have two adopted children. As soon as they were old enough to go out on their own, I warned them thoroughly of the danger of sneaking into the abandoned pool, no matter what time it was. I wish my son would have listened. He and his friends snuck in, wanting to skateboard in what remained of it. They were having a bit of a rebellious streak.
Dylan came home that day complaining that his head hurt. I had a parental intuition of exactly what happened and immediately took him to urgent care. By the time someone got around to looking at him, his consciousness had begun to slip in and out, as he complained about how bad the pain was getting. He was whisked away for an MRI, then several other tests following that. They could not find a cause but said that it was getting worse with time and by the time I had gotten Lilah, my other kid, he was barely able to carry a conversation or interact with his surroundings.
That was yesterday. Now, it's the next morning. Since then, I have seen one of the two friends that Dylan was with at the pool also being admitted into the hospital. He has a terrible nosebleed that shows no signs of stopping, and cannot be controlled, and has to receive blood transfusions. Dylan has gone completely unconscious and had to be placed on a ventilator after his oxygen levels became dangerously low. He hasn't shown any signs of recovery so far.
I am really scared for both their lives, so please take this as a warning to stay out of your local pool during safety breaks. It simply isn't worth your life.
