Drowning doesn't look like drowning - potentially life savin

http://mariovittone.com/2010/05/154/

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 (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))

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.

(See a video of the Instinctive Drowning Response)

Gold Member Joined: Feb 08 2012 Posts: 1042 Location: USA

wow, scary, this gave me the chills. thanks for sharing.

Watch the videos too. Then you'll understand better.

I watched my nephew almost drown once (and was fortunately able to rescue him). It still haunts me. As the article described, it was completely silent. He fell out of his tube, and was falling beneath the surface of the water. His eyes got really big, like he was trying to breathe through them, but he didn't move or make a sound. It was very fast, and really scary.
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That's the way the cookie crumbles...

What a shock...who would've thought. The video of the drowning boy was also not what I would've thought to look out for.

Drowning is the number 2 cause of accidental deaths. Wow.

Thanks for posting this!
May we all have a safe summer!
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black sheep wrote: Trauma doesn't ruin lives; never recovering from trauma ruins lives.

Active Poster Joined: Feb 09 2012 Posts: 61

Oh my, my body was literally shaking while I read this.

When I was 12 a classmate made a swim party in a leisure pool for her bas mitzva, and they brought out floats and stuff into the pool. I was playing with friends, and somehow I got trapped in the water under the float, and the girls who were on it were pushing it down.

Reading this brought back all those feelings, the panic, oh g-d, it was awful. I remember wanting to yell but I just couldn't. And I could hear everyone around me chatting and laughing and noone noticed. Somehow I got out from under the float but it was awful, and I just felt it all again reading this.

This article is so true. Absolutely nobody realised I was seriously struggling. When I told my friends straight after they didn't believe me, they thought I was just being overly dramatic, I guess because I looked totally normal to them.

Thanks for posting this, I hope lots of people read this, especially with summer coming. Scary.

Diamond Member Joined: Apr 18 2010 Posts: 3040

Thanks for posting this. I'm not surprised that drowning doesn't look the way we expect it to- there are quite a few other dangerous situations that are like that- heart attacks come to mind as well.

Gold Member Joined: Aug 24 2010 Posts: 1491

Wow! I was a lifeguard for many summers, and thought I knew everything about drowning. But I have to admit that I didn't either think that the kid in the video was drowning. That being said, I'd like to think that had this been in a swimming pool, from the point of view from a lifeguard, I would have recognized it as drowning...

Platinum Member Joined: Feb 07 2006 Posts: 5709

thanks for the post.

Platinum Member Joined: Apr 12 2010 Posts: 5799

Thanks for this.
I have a phobia of my head under water. I can swim fine but the minute I dunk under I hyperventilate and this just brings back the feelings I have. I sometimes feel like I cannot splash or do anything but I am panicking (hence my huge problems at mikvah!)

Its chilling to think how much we think we know but we don't really.
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When my oldest child was about 10 or 11, I was watching my children in a friends pool. My son looked like he was playing going up and down in the water. It took a few seconds for me to realize it wasnt playing. He had gotten to the part of the pool where it slanted sharply, lost his balance and was starting to drown. B"H I realized it in time! I still remember jumping into the water fully dressed and pulling him to safety.
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If you're gonna be blue, be bright blue!

Your personal stories are very appreciated. Thanks for sharing. This thread has been a real eye opener.

Frightening

Posted: Sun, Jul 01 2012, 10:38 am Post subject:

I have a phobia of deep water and panic if my feet can't touch bottom. The instinctive drowning response is exactly how I begin to flail around as soon as I'm in deep water. I know this about myself so I never stray far from the wall. So one jump and I can clutch the wall.

Platinum Member Joined: Apr 12 2010 Posts: 5799

So I was at the beach on sunday and suddenly I heard the lifeguards whistling long and loud and they all jumped in and I turned and in the distance there was this guy, hands in the air, floating, no splashing and someone near him was yelling hes drowning!

It was so scary, he had to be on oxygen when they pulled him out!

Gold Member Joined: Mar 04 2008 Posts: 1606

Thank you so much for sharing this. I had no idea.

Gold Member Joined: Jan 12 2010 Posts: 2278 Location: US

Wow, I had a similar experience to ilic and this article bought back scary memories.

We were in a pool that had no lifeguard, just a rule that you need to be accompanied by someone 17 yrs or older who agrees to "watch" you. I was a teenager and swimming in the deep when a younger girl thought she was going to drown so she grabbed on to my neck. I was totally helpless and frantic but couldn't make a sound and had a very hard time breaking loose or moving. I happened to be near the ladder, but just inches a way to make it a struggle, but miraculously I was able to make it to the ladder. It was really traumatic.

Bottom line - it's really dangerous to go swimming without the supervision of a trained lifeguard.

Gold Member Joined: Feb 24 2009 Posts: 1983

Gold Member Joined: Feb 24 2009 Posts: 1983

Gold Member Joined: Feb 24 2009 Posts: 1983