Drowning

[Magicman]

A friend sent me this:

Drowning it's not what you think!!

It will soon be that time of year when we are on the water. Here is some good info on spotting someone who is drowning. Stay safe and bring em all home.

The new captain jumped from the deck, fully dressed, and sprinted through the water. A former lifeguard, he kept his eyes on his victim as he headed straight for the couple swimming between their anchored sportfisher and the beach. "I think he thinks you're drowning," the husband said to his wife. They had been splashing each other and she had screamed but now they were just standing, neck-deep on the sand bar. "We're fine, what is he doing?" she asked, a little annoyed. "We're fine!" the husband yelled, waving him off, but his captain kept swimming hard. "Move!" he barked as he sprinted between the stunned owners. Directly behind them, not ten feet away, their nine-year-old daughter was drowning. Safely above the surface in the arms of the captain, she burst into tears, "Daddy!"

How did this captain know – from fifty feet away – what the father couldn't recognize from just ten? Drowning is not the violent, splashing, call for help that most people expect. The captain was trained to recognize drowning by experts and years of experience. The father, on the other hand, had learned what drowning looks like by watching television. If you spend time on or near the water (hint: that's all of us) then you should make sure that you and your crew knows what to look for whenever people enter the water. Until she cried a tearful, "Daddy," she hadn't made a sound. As a former Coast Guard rescue swimmer, I wasn't surprised at all by this story. Drowning is almost always a deceptively quiet event. The waving, splashing, and yelling that dramatic conditioning (television) prepares us to look for, is rarely seen in real life.

The Instinctive Drowning Response – so named by Francesco A. Pia, Ph.D., is what people do to avoid actual or perceived suffocation in the water. And it does not look like most people expect. There is very little splashing, no waving, and no yelling or calls for help of any kind. To get an idea of just how quiet and undramatic from the surface drowning can be, consider this: It is the number two cause of accidental death in children, age 15 and under (just behind vehicle accidents) – of the approximately 750 children who will drown next year, about 375 of them will do so within 25 yards of a parent or other adult. In ten percent of those drownings, the adult will actually watch them do it, having no idea it is happening. Drowning does not look like drowning – Dr. Pia, in an article in the Coast Guard's On Scene Magazine, described the instinctive drowning response like this:

Except in rare circumstances, drowning people are physiologically unable to call out for help. The respiratory system was designed for breathing. Speech is the secondary or overlaid function. Breathing must be fulfilled, before speech occurs.
Drowning people's mouths alternately sink below and reappear above the surface of the water. The mouths of drowning people are not above the surface of the water long enough for them to exhale, inhale, and call out for help. When the drowning people's mouths are above the surface, they exhale and inhale quickly as their mouths start to sink below the surface of the water.
Drowning people cannot wave for help. Nature instinctively forces them to extend their arms laterally and press down on the water's surface. Pressing down on the surface of the water, permits drowning people to leverage their bodies so they can lift their mouths out of the water to breathe.
Throughout the Instinctive Drowning Response, drowning people cannot voluntarily control their arm movements. Physiologically, drowning people who are struggling on the surface of the water cannot stop drowning and perform voluntary movements such as waving for help, moving toward a rescuer, or reaching out for a piece of rescue equipment.
From beginning to end of the Instinctive Drowning Response people's bodies remain upright in the water, with no evidence of a supporting kick. Unless rescued by a trained lifeguard, these drowning people can only struggle on the surface of the water from 20 to 60 seconds before submersion occurs.
(Source: On Scene Magazine: Fall 2006 (page 14))

This doesn't mean that a person that is yelling for help and thrashing isn't in real trouble – they are experiencing aquatic distress. Not always present before the instinctive drowning response, aquatic distress doesn't last long – but unlike true drowning, these victims can still assist in their own rescue. They can grab lifelines, throw rings, etc.

Look for these other signs of drowning when persons are in the water:

Head low in the water, mouth at water level
Head tilted back with mouth open
Eyes glassy and empty, unable to focus
Eyes closed
Hair over forehead or eyes
Not using legs – Vertical
Hyperventilating or gasping
Trying to swim in a particular direction but not making headway
Trying to roll over on the back
Appear to be climbing an invisible ladder.
So if a crew member falls overboard and everything looks OK – don't be too sure. Sometimes the most common indication that someone is drowning is that they don't look like they're drowning. They may just look like they are treading water and looking up at the deck. One way to be sure? Ask them, "Are you alright?" If they can answer at all – they probably are. If they return a blank stare, you may have less than 30 seconds to get to them. And parents – children playing in the water make noise. When they get quiet, you get to them and find out why.


Caution- this is disturbing but needs to be seen. Don't get angry at the people doing nothing- they didn't read the above article.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yM6MzwCsI1g&feature=youtu.be

[doc henderson]

Sad but true.  I was a lifeguard in high school and part of college.  This is how kids can drown in a pool with lifeguards.
Adults are more likely to get in trouble in lakes and if intoxicated.  Good reminder this time of year MM

[sandhills]

Thanks MM, I wasn't able to watch the video but being someone who swims about as well as an anchor I can relate to everything.  My wife was a life guard all the way from high school through college and is an excellent swimmer, I've learned a lot watching her but that was an excellent post, I know those feelings that were described and we made it a rule years ago when all the kids were young (nieces, nephews, our own) no one gets in the water without a life jacket.  I learned on our snorkeling trip in Cancun last winter my butt belongs on the boat! ;)

[petefrom bearswamp]

Thanks  Lynn.
Very informative.
My son fell off of the end of the dock at my in laws summer camp when he was about 4.
His cousin who was 3 at the time was sitting next to him.
The dock extended about 20 feet into the lake.
I was about 50 feet away playing catch with my BIL.
Randy the cousin yelled that Mark had fallen in the water.I made a world record sprint and got to him very quickly.
It is amazing how much the water slows you down when you are in panic mode.
He was on the bottom with the water level just over his head and his arms as I remember were flailing.
Thank the lord I made a very quick response.
He gagged a little but was none the worse for wear.
Randy said Uncle Pete, I forgot to pull him out.
Mark said dad, I forgot to swim.
They both learned to doggy paddle before the summer was out.

[doc henderson]

Most rec. centers, the red cross and others sponsor swimming and lifesaving classes.  My dad had a younger brother drown while he was in the military.  My mom never learned to swim cause her mom thought going to a pool in a swim suite would get her pregnant.  I was in swim lessons every summer and eventually a lifeguard and swim instructor, and partly to blame for my start in Medicine.

[Ljohnsaw]

Yes, that was hard to watch.  We have a pool and when a we have a party, I'm always watching.  When we first moved in, my wife had a neighbor come over with her son.  I think my daughter was out in the pool as well.  The ladies were a talking and the boy was playing on the step - going up and down.  He was about 4 or 5 at the time.  He slipped off the last step and went under.  My wife, dressed in shorts, jumped right in and pulled him out.  The mom said he was fine and just goofing around.  Years later (10?) when my wife passed away, when he heard the news, the boy's response was "she saved my life in the pool".

[Ron Scott]

Good information!

[WV Sawmiller]

Lynn,

   Good information and warm weather being just around the corner we will have more friends and family on the water real soon.

   5-6 years ago I was in my boat parked on my favorite brushtop fishing for crappie and I heard splashing at an old dock a hundred yards or so away. I thought it was kids swimming and playing till I saw a guy jump in the water and grab his wife or girl friend and he was holding her up while she flailed away. I pulled and anchor and rushed over and helped him get her up on a set of concrete step the State Park Service had installed. A couple of kayakers came and helped. We had her on the steps and the she was wild-eyed and still flailing. The guy was gently slapping her on both sides of her face and calling her name. After several minutes her eyes focused and she said "Stop slapping me". After that she was okay. She had fallen off the steps into the lake. She would have drowned if we had not gotten her out. The bad part was the water was just slightly over 3' deep and she could have stood up and walked out at any time had she not panicked.

   She was a big lady and very hard to pull out of the lake up on to the steps. If I had it to do over I'd have just put one of my life preservers on her and towed her around the corner 40-50 yards to the boat landing where the bank gently sloped and we could more easily have pulled her out on to the bank.

    We have people drown almost every year here wade fishing in the New River in swift shallow water. They slip, sometimes hit their head and panic in the swift water. A life preserver would nearly always prevent them drowning.

[Ianab]

NZ has big problems with drownings. We have almost as much coastline as the USA, so almost everyone lives near a beach, and if they don't, there will be a lake or river big enough to get in trouble in. 

I used to do a lot of bodyboarding when I lived closer to the coast. and would go out in some pretty heavy West Coast surf. But you learnt to read the water, where the rips and currents will take you, and you soon figure out what to do if you get caught in the whitewater. 

But I can sure see how someone that's not experienced can easily drift into a hole in the beach, and quickly be dragged out into heavier surf. For a confident swimmer, this isn't actually a problem, you duck dive the waves and float with the rip until you get where it's going, usually 100 yards offshore. Find your way back from there, every rip going out has a matching flow going towards shore.  But for the average person getting stuck in the spot can lead to panic, and then they are in trouble.

[dgdrls]

Thanks Lynn

I had the unfortunate task of reporting a drowning at one of our Hydropower impoundments.
3-4 yr. old.  Bunch of Parents on the sand at the edge of the water 20 feet away.
6-7 little ones in the water, not one in a PFD . They all thought she went to the bathroom.

this one ended better
Mother charged with neglect after 3-year-old nearly drowns in resort hot tub

I know folks hate to wear a PFD but they work every time,

D