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Show Recovered from Michael Dakis listens as daughter Kim ..L.- -,. describes Jiow she saved him. learned later that I held it in one position to avoid further pain. While on the stretcher being carried into the hospital room, full force. in I begged pain struck to it. ease When they for something in the proper position placed my head I for the X ray, screamed in agony. I was feeling chills and nausea whe, n the doctor finally approved adatiye to help me relax. ForturtatelyTmeX rays showed only a concussion, no fractures. I also had a gash in my head -andsome4njurediieck vertebrae. I was put in tracpon and stayed in the hospital five days. I still am wearing a cervical collar to help ease the recurring pains. During my few conscious moments, I worried about how my family would near-drownin- g, X-r- ay was a hot summer Sunday, in our suburban community of Orihda, just outside" Oakland, Calif. A fine afternoon, I thought, for puttering around the yard and taking advantage of our swimming pool. When I took out my tools,, I had no idea that, tut for my daughter's .heroic efforts," it might have beelfmf" last day alive. It shouldn't have happened. Even now I can't imagine what possessed me to behave so foolishly. I have al ways been a stickler for pool safety. It , , . XXVior a - tiroe inef allorl viii rVitl dren and guests were firmly impressed no pushing or holding heads Tmder water and, particularly, no diving in- . . . 11 io snauuw waiex. lei ivi jume iceusun I disobeyed my' . , I still own rules and nearly died . a ml ine Temperature cumoea la a scorching 102, so I stopped work to play swimming games with my daugh ter Kimberly, 7, and son Kevin,. My wife Joan was in the house, lookbaby ing .after our 1 A i ' ' can't.-explain- ! ' - W i : L ; -. .t- surely drowned." 4. six-month-- old Kristin. , The fourth time I joined the children, we agreed Leader." During the game, Kevin demonstrated a dive he called "the missile dive.";, It is done with arms pressed close to the sides, going in head first. Kevin wanted to see if Kim and I could do it while he watched lsFwJh. from the shallow end. I dove from the middle of the pool into about five to six feet of water. This in itself was foolish, ior I am a big man 215 pounds. Instead of heading for the deep end of the pool, I swung back toward the shallow end maybe impulsively to give Kevin a better view of my dive. That twist, aided by the slight spring I made in diving gave rne terrific momentum which propelled me onto the pool floor. I had my eyes open and saw where I was heading, but before I could stop myself my head struck the concrete. The last thing I recalled before blacking out were 'the air bubbles rushing out of my moutri. , N irk till My D au g hter, even Years Old, aved Me from D rowning Stunned and father lay helpless, this in water over the girl's head but she had an unfailing sou of strength 215-pou- nd By MICHAEL DAKIS as told to Peer J. Oppenheimer iNitrlATiXtoWirneir lying half on the pool deck, half in tne waier, wim a pain m my, neaa and neck as if hot needles Were being stuck into me. Through a mist, I could see my family and a neighbor, Dr. Rod Houlihan, a physiologist. In sudden terror I gasped, "Oh, my God, I'm paralyzed." I could barely move my finger tips and didn't know how I got where I was nor what had happened. Vaguely, I heard Kevin Family Weekly, September 3, 1961 manage if I werejarajyzej)rdy' ing. I didn't fully realize how close I came to death until that evening when the doctor finally, said everything would be all right. Headded-Th- at was a bad blow you received. If your daughter hadn't pulled you out, you'd have blacked out again and crying, "Look at all the blood!" My eyes were heavy and I wanted sleep, but Dr. Houlihan wouldn't let me for fear it might be fatal! He kept splashing water on me and making me open and close my fists. He wouldn't allow me to move the rest of my body until a medical doctor arrived. When the doctor did come, he ordered, me taken to the hospital. Meanwhile, the pains increased until I could hardly stand them. "Please give me something for the pain," I moaned I began to have chills, too. The doctor decided not to wait for an ambulance. With the help of Dr. Iloulihan, he lifted me into a neighride to an bor's car for the nine-mi- le Oakland hospital. My neck was so stiff the result of a muscle spasm, I then, Up thought I hadn't given any to how I'd been saved. assumed that the children had run for help. At the doctor's remark, I turned in amazement to my wife. "Yes, it was Kim who pulled you out of the pool,1' she said. "But how?" I asked. "How could a girl pull a man , out of the water?" I learned the answer the following night when Kim visited me and told me her story. When I came to the surface after hitting the bottom of the pool, Kim heard me groan and saw blood all over my face. She jumped into water over her head and grabbed me by the shoulders. Unable to touch bottom but kicking hard, she started pulling me toward the steps. I kept slipping from her grasp, but she wouldn't let go and kept struggling until she was able to get a foothold on the bottom of the pool; Tugging with a strength unbelievable m such a small girl, she managed to. get me settled on the steps, partly out of the pool. She put a towel over me as protection against the sun and only then wrent to call her mother, crying, "Daddy's unconscious. He can't see!" I 50-pou- nd 215-pou- nd The adults took over next but if it hadn't been for Kim I probably wpuld never have made it. Even after I'd been told the story, I couldn't understand how .she had been able to do it. Her own explanation gave me the richest moment of my entire life. "It wasn't hard," she told me, "because I love you so much, Daddy " |