Attack on Ellis unwarranted.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)

This letter is in response to "Ellis Contribution Questioned" (Letters, April 2004).

My wife and I have more than 100 years of volunteer service with the American Red Cross, primarily in water safety services at the local chapter level. We want to make it clear that we never have had any professional dealings or contractual association with the Jeff Ellis organization.

Brewster's letter represents a personal attack on Jeff Ellis. From an historical perspective, Ellis's dedication and perseverance helped revolutionize and change a Red Cross water safety program that had far too long been dormant and was growing moss. The Ellis organization forced the Red Cross to wake up and bring its genuinely fine program up to today's realities and standards.

Brewster takes a shot at the Ellis rescue tube innovation. Rather than allowing a diminution of lifeguard standards, it allowed waterparks and many pool operations, especially lakefronts, to address the types of rescues that previously had to be performed by actual swimmer to swimmer contact with the victim--a condition that put both rescuer and victim at risk.

The standards of job performance Ellis exacted brought firsthand "overview" and site inspections of swimming operations, something the Red Cross has never done to this day.

Yes, the Ellis recommendation that use of the Heimlich maneuver as a first step to drowning resuscitation has created controversy, but I can recall the Red ...