AtlantiCare Holds Second Annual Attitude and Gratitude Event for Lifeguards

The Harrah’s Regional Trauma Center at AtlantiCare Regional Medical Center Atlantic City Campus held its second annual Lifeguards SAVE, an attitude and gratitude event, July 28 at the Atlantic City Country Club, 900 Shore Road, Northfield, New Jersey. The event included dinner and presentations. ARMC hosted the recognition of lifeguards from southern New Jersey for their Safe Attitudes and Valiant Efforts (SAVE) in collaboration with the Life Rolls On™ Foundation and the Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation. Lifeguards from throughout Atlantic and Cape May County attended.
Speakers included Alexander Axelrad, MD, medical director, Harrah’s Regional Trauma Center at ARMC; Jesse Billauer, of Malibu, California, founder and ambassador of the Life Rolls On™ Foundation; Chad deSatnick, of Cold Spring, New Jersey, northeast events coordinator, Life Rolls On™; former Cape May lifeguard and former spinal cord injury patient and Kathy McNulty, MSN, RN, ACNP-C, Harrah’s Regional Trauma Center at ARMC nurse practitioner.
“As a regional trauma center in a shore community, we recognize lifeguards as an integral part of our trauma system,” said Axelrad. “You serve as our front-line injury prevention by establishing and enforcing rules in and around the water. As first responders, you make a difference in the outcomes of our patients and play an important role in the lives of our community as well as our visitors.”
Jesse Billauer, founder and ambassador of the Life Rolls On™ Foundation, professional surfer and Nike athlete was surfing at Zuma Beach in California when he was pushed headfirst into the shallow sandbar, fracturing his neck and severing his spinal cord, leaving him a quadriplegic.
“Follow your heart,” Billauer told attendees. “Think about what your dreams and goals are. I had a choice. Was I going to go down a negative road or enjoy my life? At any moment things can change. We’re all only temporarily able-bodied.”
Billauer deatailed how he began helping others through the Life Rolls On™ Foundation, earned a degree in communications, and reached many other personal goals. He told of how he was featured in the in the surf epic, Step Into Liquid and the feature film, Jesse’s Story, for which lifeguards lined up for signed copies at the event.
Billauer also urged attendees, “Take the right precaution. Before my injury, I never thought about not being able to walk or be independent.”
DeSatnick, a former patient at the Harrah’s Regional Trauma Center at ARMC after a 2001 surfing injury in Cape May, needed spinal fusion to repair several broken vertebrae in his neck and back. After attending his first Life Rolls On™ fundraiser in 2005 DeSatnick started organizing fundraisers for the organization, and now serves as the organization’s northeast events coordinator. During the event he urged lifeguards to heed their own safety and to recognize potential injuries in patients.
McNulty, who shared safety and awareness tips, said, “Aquatic injuries are often serious.” She said men are more likely to be injured in or on the water. “Good assessment skills are necessary to ensure anyone injured gets appropriate treatment promptly. You’re the first line of care.”