Drowning Doesn't Look Like Drowning

[Rillion]

Please give this article a read, if you ever spend time around a pool, lake, ocean, etc. and especially if you have children who do. It's about how to recognize drowning-- it doesn't look like in movies, with the waving, yelling, and splashing. In fact, even though it's the 2nd greatest accidental killer of children in America, 10% of parents whose children drown will actually watch them do it, unaware of what's happening.

Excerpt:

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 (source: CDC).  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:

      1. 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.
       2. 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.
       3. 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.
       4. 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.
       5. 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))

[Cognitive Dissident]

There's also something called the "gasp reflex," which seems to be a bit different from what they described.  Typically, it happens when someone jumps or dives into unexpectedly cold water.  The shock to the system causes an involuntary "gasp" response, which has been determined to have killed many people.  I guess the additional note would be to know how cold the water is if you jump or dive in (perhaps even swim first) and to watch others you care about before they do the same.

[YixilTesiphon]

This is very good to know. Thanks.

[Riddler]

aquaman & his peeps would tumbleweed right thru this thread, with a ''pfff''

[Diogenes The Cynic]

Thank you Rillion.

Another thing to note while in the ocean is that you CANNOT swim out of a ripcurl. You're better off zigzagging toward the beach at an angle, but you can't go straight back.

[Alex Libman]

The world needs wireless underwater location transmission and "panic button" wristwatch technology yesterday!

[Rillion]

The world needs wireless underwater location transmission and "panic button" wristwatch technology yesterday!

If someone can't raise their arm out of the water to wave because their instincts are telling them to keep their arms flat, they might not be able to cross an arm over to use a panic button wristwatch either.  But at least it's something you would only need to do once to get the signal started. 

The thing is, if parents/friends are vigilant enough to be paying attention to a wireless system that would pick up that signal, you'd think they would be knowledgeable about how to recognize drowning visually.  Once you know how to spot it, all you need to do is shout "Are you okay?"  And if they don't answer, go after them. 

[Alex Libman]

Yeah, you're right - I thought that you wouldn't sink much if you stop flapping for a second, but I guess every second does count.

Better make it a ring or some other type of device you can activate without moving the major limbs.  The same technology would probably primarily be used by personal protection / security companies to allow their clients to call for help without making any obvious movements, and without an attacker being able to prevent it physically.  One option is dental implants activated with the tongue, for example, or a device activated by moving one's toes (various methods can also be used to prevent false alarms).

Most problems have technological solutions, many technological solutions are already attainable in a year or less given the proper funding, and proper funding is economically feasible if you just get people to think rationally about the potential of what technology can bring.  Instead we have a government that steals most of your money and uses it to brainwash you into a position of obedience and learned helplessness, while most of humanities problems only fester as the result...  We don't need your regulations of pools and beaches, Massa Guv'mint - just leave us the hell alone and much better solutions are going to emerge!  

(Mission of turning this into an anti-government thread - accomplished!)

[Riddler]

instead of your alarm techno-floo-floo
might as well just give everyone a james bond rebreather.

[Alex Libman]

Is the drag queen trying to say something to me?  I have it on ignore, and my Copyfree fanaticism is forcing me to use the Chromium Web-browser which doesn't render the Show/Hide effects correctly.   

[Diogenes The Cynic]

Is the drag queen trying to say something to me?  I have it on ignore, and my Copyfree fanaticism is forcing me to use the Chromium Web-browser which doesn't render the Show/Hide effects correctly.   

Fuck you Libman, just, fuck you.

[Alex Libman]

Why, did you invent a silent alarm dental implant before me, or are you still butthurt that no one's using Opera? 

[libertylover]

This article is correct.  I was a lifeguard for a time.  We had to watch demonstrations of what an actual drowning would look like.  Because movies are so incorrect. 

Another danger not mentioned in the article but equally as deadly are near drowning deaths.  It only takes a 15cc of water in the lungs to cause a person to drown in their own fluids hours after a near drowning.  If a child continues to cough for more than thirty minuets after a near drowning, head straight for hospital emergency room.

For all you techno jargon geeks in other words:

Ventilatory insufficiency is the most critical problem for near-drowning victims. Severe hypoxia is due to aspiration of fluid or to acute reflex laryngospasm, which may result in asphyxia without aspiration of fluid. Aspiration of fluid and particulate matter may cause chemical pneumonitis, damaging cells lining the alveoli, and may impair alveolar secretion of surfactant, resulting in patchy atelectasis. The perfusion of nonaerated, atelectatic areas of the lungs leads to intrapulmonary shunting of blood, aggravating the hypoxemia; as more fluid is aspirated, surfactant loss increases, and atelectasis and hypoxemia worsen. Sizable areas of atelectasis may result in stiff noncompliant lungs and respiratory failure. Respiratory acidosis with hypercapnia can occur. A concomitant metabolic acidosis may result from tissue hypoxia. Alveolar and tissue hypoxia can result in pulmonary and cerebral edema. Pulmonary edema due to near drowning is thought to result directly from alveolar hypoxia, analogous to high- altitude pulmonary edema; ie, it is noncardiogenic. Pulmonary edema and atelectasis may coexist. Source: http://www.merck.com/pubs/mmanual/section20/chapter284/284a.htm

Another weird factoid some drowning victims can present with no water in their lungs at all.  Yep all those who done it forensic shows.  The ones where the medical examiner rules out drowning due to a lack of water in the lungs are wrong.  Drowning is defined as a death as a result of submersion under water and can be diagnosed by the closing off of the trachea a reflex which happens sometimes.  Also fluid can be found in the lungs of bodies immersed subsequent to death by other causes.  So water in the lungs not in the lungs is not as critical a clue to drowning as those shows would have people believe.  What is really fucked up about this misinformation.  People believe them to be facts and could be potentially mislead at a trial.  Another one of the dangers of popular media. 

[Cognitive Dissident]

What is really fucked up about this misinformation.  People believe them to be facts and could be potentially mislead at a trial.  Another one of the dangers of popular media. 

I've often thought this about tv shows, both in regard medicine, as you described, and to law (people may assume they can do something they'll be punished for because of the way law is presented.)

[davann]

People believe them to be facts and could be potentially mislead at a trial.  Another one of the dangers of popular media. 

And the danger of jury trials. Just one more example why trial by jury is barbaric.