Case Summary: Ayxzel Galeon and Bryxzel Galeon
Feb 12, 2022CASE SUMMARY
Ayxzel Galeon (21-years-old) and Bryxzel Galeon (18-years-old) were on holiday in the Lake District celebrating Bryzel’s graduation from the University of Leicester on Thursday 1st August 2019. Ayxzel and Bryxzel attended Honister Mountain Adventure before re-joining the rest of the group at Howtown, Ullswater for a barbeque on the shore of a lake (Addison, 2020).
Shortly after eating, at around 16:50, Ayxzel and Bryxzel entered the lake, and the boys subsequently got into difficulty in the water around 25 metres from a pontoon. Yanek Kowal (then 65-years-old) a lifeguard trainer of 47-years-experience, and his wife, who were on holiday noticed neither of the boys were strong swimmers. When the boys got into difficulty, Mr Kowal jumped in to perform a rescue (Addison, 2020; Powell, 2019):
We were fishing and I said to my wife there could be a problem as we saw the two of them getting into difficulty. I jumped in and went to try and save them.
Using my lifeguard training, I knew that there was more chance of saving the younger lad as he was still above the surface. People usually do not survive more than about four minutes once they are submerged and so I had to make that difficult decision because I could only save one of them.
When I reached him in the water, he grabbed hold of me, and we both went under for a while. I thought I was going to die, so I had to force him away from me and use a different kind of lift to get him out of the water.
I have found it difficult to sleep at night since it happened, and when I close my eyes, I can still see the young man going down.
Mr Kowal managed to pull Ayxzel and another friend, Christine Carino, to a nearby pontoon, but Bryxzel had submerged and disappeared from view. The emergency services arrived at around 17:00 and initiated a search. Ayxzel was rushed to the hospital. Bryxzel’s body was recovered from the lake at 22:45 later the same evening (Addison, 2020; Tatum, 2019).
At Cockermouth Coroner’s Court, Coroner Dr Shaw gave a cause of death as drowning and concluded that Mr Galeon’s death was due to misadventure. In his concluding statement, Coroner Dr Shaw said (Addison, 2020):
It was an awful day for the families involved. A happy day in a matter of moments turned into a tragic disaster. Bryxzel has got a full tummy. He has just had his dinner.
With the benefit of hindsight, it would have been better if he hadn’t gone into the water. It’s dangerous to go into water with a full tummy. This is freshwater. The body is less buoyant, and swimming is harder. It is extremely lucky Yanek went straight into the water to help, otherwise, this might have been a double tragedy.
Thankfully, Ayxzyl was rescued. Swimming is dangerous. It’s not that people shouldn’t swim. They should make sure they are aware of the dangers of swimming after eating.
Uncle of Bryxzel, Vincent Galeon, said on behalf of the family that they can’t thank Yanek Kowal enough for his efforts on that day (Huntley, 2019):
Bryxzel tried to keep his brother Ayxzel afloat and was getting himself into more severe difficulties. Mr Kowal was able to take hold of Ayxzel and get him to safety, he did the most remarkable thing.
We were fortunate enough to meet him on the campsite near the lake and thank him for saving Ayxzel. He also saved another girl who dived in to help and got into difficulties. We really can't thank him enough for what he did.
This has been the most terrible tragedy that we could imagine in our family. Bryxzel's family were there and they saw what happened, they are of course struggling with everything at the moment, he is a terrible loss to all of us.
At the moment Ayxzel is finding things very difficult and he is struggling with feelings of guilt, wondering why he was the one who survived and not his brother. Of course, we are telling him he must not feel like that, there is nothing he could have done to change what happened and we are just thankful that we still have him.
He is very traumatised but physically he is improving all the time and getting stronger after spending some time in hospital. It is hard to believe that we have lost Byxzel now, he was a young man with big dreams and was on the verge of moving to the next stage of his life.
It is only three weeks since he graduated from Leicester University with a degree in computer sciences. What he said was that he wanted to started working and doing well and to buy his father a new car, that was his first ambition.
Mr Yanek was presented with an award for his bravery by CEO Robert Gofton of the Royal Life Saving Society UK. Mr Yanek said in receiving his award (George, 2019):
When you’ve trained for this kind of emergency, your instinct is to dive straight in to help but in truth, the first action of any lifesaver is to be aware of their own limitations. I may be still 16 in my head but I’m 65 now.
I don’t like to think of myself as a hero, a life was still lost that day and I will always wonder whether I could’ve done more to help, however I know I did my best in an impossible situation.
My message to anyone out and about on the water is simple: take precautions and know your limits. Coldwater shock is silent, deadly and invisible, catching out even the strongest of open water swimmers.
Know what to do in an emergency and look out for each other.
Mr Yanek was also recognised by his professional body, the Swimming Teaching Association in a ceremony on 12th October 2019 (McClounie, 2019). Mr Yanek was the 10th recipient of the STA Roll of Honour for exceptional lifesaving achievement. On presenting the award to Yanek, CEO Dave Candler, who has known and worked with Yanek for many years, said (STA, 2019):
I think we can all agree that this is a heart-breaking story, but it’s one of heroism and bravery too and without Yanek’s selfless actions, there could have been two, three or more tragedies that day (including himself).
Yanek is highly deserving of this nationally recognised award and it’s a real honour to present it to him in front of his family, friends and STA peers.
References (18)
Note: I wish those affected all the best in their future. No part of this article purports to attribute blame. See our methodology page for further details of how these case summaries are constructed.
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Citation: Jacklin, D. 2022. Case Summary: Ayxzel Galeon and Bryxzel Galeon. Water Incident Research Hub, 12 February.
