Noland Arbaugh was face down, floating on the surface of the water when he realised he could no longer move. Up until that point, it had been a beautiful day. He and his friends had arrived at the lake, surrounded by the lush hills of northeastern Pennsylvania, hours before, ready to swim on a day off from working at a children’s summer camp.
The 22-year-old had already been in the water once but headed in with a couple of pals for a second time. At waist height, he pushed off and submerged himself into the water alongside the others, except he never surfaced. When he regained consciousness, he was already drowning. Arbaugh sensed he was paralysed, saying: “I thought, is there anything I can do? No. So what’s next? I held my breath for as long as I could, probably five or 10 seconds. Then I took a big drink of water, and that was that. I blacked out.”
He slipped in and out of consciousness while an air ambulance arrived, only fully waking up in the nearby hospital where he was rushed in for emergency surgery. Two vertebrae in his neck were dislocated and a nurse, on the phone to his mum, was instructed by Arbaugh not to tell her what had happened to him. “I just didn’t think it was worth her worrying,” he says.
Denne historien er fra May 30, 2024-utgaven av The Independent.
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Denne historien er fra May 30, 2024-utgaven av The Independent.
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'Sometimes tears come out, you have to be an animal'
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Brat girl's down and dirty
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The 1964 psychodrama Marnie’ was blighted by its director’s behaviour towards the lead star Tippi Hedren, resulting in dramatic results on and off screen
CARDINAL SINS
The twisty, Oscar-tipped Conclave’ needed more than shock and awe, writes Clarisse Loughrey, while the beautiful loneliness of All We Imagine as Light’ will speak to your soul
MasterChef host faces the heat away from the kitchen
Gregg Wallace is stepping back from the long-running BBC show while claims of misconduct are probed. Nick Hilton looks at the story of the greengrocer-turned-TV presenter
