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'I just kept getting pulled out further and further': Regina man recounts near-drowning in Mexico

'I just kept getting pulled out further and further': Regina man recounts near-drowning in Mexico

Devin Pacholik says he learned a lesson about not overestimating one's self the hard way when he nearly drowned in a Mexican riptide earlier this year.

The powerful undercurrent pulled Regina-based journalist further and further from the shore, his wife, the friends he was vacationing with and the lifeguard on duty.

"I just kept getting pulled out further and further until I could no longer touch the bottom and the waves are crashing over my head and I'm getting more and more exhausted," he told CBC Saskatchewan's The Morning Edition on Wednesday.

According to the World Health Organization, drowning accounts for seven per cent of injury-related deaths around the world. Around 500 people drown each year across Canada. In Saskatchewan, that number is about 22, according to the Saskatchewan Lifesaving Society.

Pacholik recounted how his wife — who had lifeguard training — had stabilized him while he was in the water and the overwhelming feeling that he was inconveniencing her by dying.

"There's just this profoundly dark experience of looking in your loved one's eyes, and they know you're in serious trouble, but now you feel guilty for bringing them into that situation as well," he said.

Pacholik wife and friends helped hold him in place until a lifeguard on duty was able to pull him from the dark depths and a potential watery grave.

When they reached the shore, a crowd of people had gathered and began cheering for the lifeguard. They also offered life tips to Pacholik, he said.

"Can you just like give me some time to have my dark thoughts alone here?" he recalled thinking.

"You process a lot of things when you almost die. It's a weird, embarrassing, bizarrely mundane experience when you almost die."