{"id":171,"date":"2011-06-03T12:21:30","date_gmt":"2011-06-03T16:21:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.georgetownshores.org\/private\/blog\/?p=171"},"modified":"2011-06-03T13:23:49","modified_gmt":"2011-06-03T17:23:49","slug":"what-does-drowning-look-like","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.georgetownshores.org\/private\/blog\/?p=171","title":{"rendered":"What does Drowning Look Like?"},"content":{"rendered":"

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by Mario on May 3, 2010
\nin Boating Safety,Water Safety<\/address>\n

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. \u201cI think he thinks you\u2019re drowning,\u201d 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. \u201cWe\u2019re fine, what is he doing?\u201d she asked, a little annoyed. \u201cWe\u2019re fine!\u201d the husband yelled, waving him off, but his captain kept swimming hard. \u201dMove!\u201d 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, \u201cDaddy!\u201d<\/p>\n

How did this captain know \u2013 from fifty feet away \u2013 what the father couldn\u2019t 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\u2019s 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, \u201cDaddy,\u201d she hadn\u2019t made a sound. As a former Coast Guard rescue swimmer, I wasn\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n

The Instinctive Drowning Response \u2013 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) \u2013 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 \u2013 Dr. Pia, in an article in the Coast Guard\u2019s On Scene Magazine, described the instinctive drowning response like this:\"\"<\/p>\n

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  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.<\/li>\n
  2. Drowning people\u2019s 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\u2019s mouths are above the surface, they exhale and inhale quickly as their mouths start to sink below the surface of the water.<\/li>\n
  3. Drowning people cannot wave for help. Nature instinctively forces them to extend their arms laterally and press down on the water\u2019s 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.<\/li>\n
  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.<\/li>\n
  5. From beginning to end of the Instinctive Drowning Response people\u2019s 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.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/blockquote>\n

    (Source: On Scene Magazine: Fall 2006<\/span><\/a> (page 14))<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

    This doesn\u2019t mean that a person that is yelling for help and thrashing isn\u2019t in real trouble \u2013 they are experiencing aquatic distress. Not always present before the instinctive drowning response, aquatic distress doesn\u2019t last long \u2013 but unlike true drowning, these victims can still assist in their own rescue. They can grab lifelines, throw rings, etc.<\/p>\n

    Look for these other signs of drowning when persons are in the water:<\/p>\n