Several years ago, in a partnership with the Seattle Fire Department, Seattle Police and UW Medicine, UW Rowing helped to create an extensive program for water emergencies. The program is called Water Emergency Training, or W.E.T.
 
The genesis of the program was to figure out and train for how to deal with a health emergency on the water, centered primarily around cardiac emergencies. A rower in a shell, for instance, would need to be removed from his or her boat before aid could be administered. 
 
Another step, devised by the UW team, was to prepare to get a patient to the closest possible pick-up location, where an ambulance or other first responders can be waiting to treat the victim and/or transport them to a hospital. For that, the team researched local dock locations and devised a map showing the various spots around Lake Washington and Lake Union that are most easily accessible to EMTs.
 
All of the partners in the W.E.T. program agreed to share the program and promote its use all over the world, not just for rowing programs, but for other on-water leisure activities or programs. The idea was to share all of what they'd put together via on-line videos in an effort to make the training available to anyone interested in it.
 
Now, with the worldwide pandemic, there are new challenges – primarily to do with the fact that rowers and coaches are now more frequently operating by themselves, or in greatly smaller numbers. Whereas two or three people used to be on each coaching launch, for instance, now there is usually only one. 
 
To deal with these changes, UW rowing team doctor Henry Pelto and the rowing program put together a new set of protocols, and a series of new videos explaining them all. 

>> WATCH THE NEW VIDEOS HERE 
  
The entire W.E.T. program, including both the original presentations and the new, are available to watch and share at WaterEmergencyTraining.com.