How did the incident of YMCA pool affect Douglas ?

For days, Douglas had a haunting fear in his heart after the incident. The slightest exertion upset him, making him wobbly in the knees and sick to his stomach. Douglas never went back to the pool, he feared water and avoided it whenever he could. A few years late, when he came to know the waters of the Cascades, he wanted to get into them. However, whether he was wading the Tieton or Bumping River or bathing in Warm Lake of the Goat Rocks, the terror that had seized him in the pool would come back to him. It would take possession of him completely, his legs would become paralysed and an icy horror would grab his heart. That handicap stayed with him as the years rolled by.