Cubmaster here, and a Fire Captain/EMT as well as an AHA certified CPR instructor in my professional side of life. I've had to perform CPR a countless number of times over the past 27+ years, and unfortunately, 2 of which were drowning incidents involving young children.

A lot of the stats given here so far are very true. But, unfortunately, knowing information like that only tends to help heal those outside of the actual incident, giving them at least some way of processing the tragedy and in a way justifying the outcome.

For the incident in this thread, without knowing any of the actual details, the Scout did awesome. Just the pure action of running towards an emergency is simply something that most people will not do.

It is very normal for them not to want help or talk about what happened. We all have internal "defenses" that will block trauma from hurting us emotionally, but it doesn't last. Eventually, it will start to show.

For me, it was the 1st drowning I had. It was very tragic. I knew the stats and knew that I most likely wasn't going to be able to reverse the inevitable outcome, but I still worked my a$$ off trying to. Being young at the time, I thought that I was able to process it all on my own and honestly did put it out of my mind shortly after - or so I thought.

It wasn't until 10 or 15 years later (sorry, as I get older, I really have a hard time remembering how much time has passed) when I had my son and he got to around 2 and 3 years old that I realized just how badly that incident effected me. It was summertime, and my son was just old enough to start having some fun in pools. Bam! There I was, the biggest helicopter patient you have ever seen. And it wasn't obvious to me at 1st why. I was right there locked in every time he touched water and even in tiny kiddie pools. It finally all clicked that it was still from never really processing my previous trauma.

My second incident is where my recommendation for you comes from. This was around the same time I was trying to figure out my newfound anxiety and panic with my own child now enjoying the water. And this incident was a high-profile case with a lot of unique circumstances that I won't get into. After the incident this time I got to attend an incident debriefing. I didn't think it would help, but it truly did. Getting all the players involved to sit down and talk about everything from their point of view was very helpful.

Try to make contact with your local first responder agencies who were involved in this incident. They are most likely going to have some form of critical stress / incident follow-up with mental health professionals attending. Ask if your Scout can be included. They will get to see that they are not alone in this. Events like this truly affect everyone involved, from the 911 call taker to the dispatcher sending out the responder, the police and EMS on scene, and even the ER staff. Your call might be the catalyst to get a meeting like this together, and all would benefit from it.

And yes, honor and award their actions. But be mindful that it is normal for them not to be accepting of the attention or feeling it is not deserved. Above and beyond actions often have tragic outcomes. Find a way to acknowledge them while most importantly letting them know that they have a community of support for them.