Drowning Doesn't Look Like Drowning

[bowlofpetunias]

Thanks.. I have posted this elsewhere as well

 

[D_B]

Thanks.. I have posted this elsewhere as well

Printed out copies and gave them to non SB friends

 

[Reef Tank]

I suppose every trained lifeguard would already know this.

Why is the movie version so prevalent? Most urban legends are routinely debunked, but not this one. But, as an example of misinformation, when power plant pollution is reported on TV the image is of the cooling tower spewing steam and the impression is there are huge amounts of particulates and chemicals lofting into our breathing air.

Why, when there is a huge "No Lifeguard on Duty" sign at the beach, isn't there this description of drowning on the sign?

 

[Prostar]

Thanks for the post. We passed it on to the young-uns in Florida so they can be more attentive with the babies. There is no point in assuming what they already know. Also, as soon as the grand-kids get a few years older they are learning to swim. They are one and two right now.

 

[ZenDiver.3D]

Thanks for the post. It is running around Facebook and I posted it on my page also. I have grabbed a few too when I was a lifeguard, way back. They seemed startled when I grabbed them.
This is just like what you will see in a diver who is in passive panic. No matter how much you shout to inflate, they are not at home and will sink. All rescue diver courses cover passive panic, but they seem to stress active panic more. Our boat went and got a diver who had lost his boat and he was just lost in space, so to speak. Slowly drifting away and bobbing below the surface as waves rolled over him. No response to anyone. His own boat hadn't even known he was alone and missing. My boat captain is amazing, as he was the only one of us to see that little speck.

Thanks again for bringing this up. It should be posted everywhere.

 

[Digger54]

We've had an unusual number of drownings in local lakes this year. I've posted this scubaboard article on my facebook page a couple of times now to try to educate folks. This weekend a young woman on a pontoon boat full of people apparently silently disappeared during a swim and was not noticed as missing until the boat was back at the dock.

 

[reddiver970]

I saw a man drowned when I was snorkeling as a kid. It was a very quiet event but I knew something was wrong. I told my mom who reported it to the sheriff, they didn't pay much attention to me until the man was reported missing that afternoon. The next day I went to the lake and watched as divers searched for his body about 75 yards from where I saw him go under. I told them they were searching the wrong spot, they finally agreed to search where I said he went down. Within a few minutes they found his body. He was about 15 feet from water shallow enough to stand up in. I think I was 11 or 12

 

[D_B]

Bump .....

This outstanding article was shared on another board. I know that this isn't technically directly related to basic scuba discussions, I'm posting it here so that it gets the most exposure. Feel free to move it.

If you follow the link, there is an excellent discussion following the article:
http://ht.ly/28PJ2

Drowning Doesn’t Look Like Drowning


by Mario on May 18, 2010
in Boating Safety,Coast Guard,gCaptain
The new captain jumped from the cockpit, fully dressed, and sprinted through the water. A former lifeguard, he kept his eyes on his victim as he headed straight for the owners who were 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)
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 n 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
• Ladder climb, rarely out of the water.

So if a crew member falls overboard and every looks O.K. – 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.

 

[Cleaner]

Thank you for this Bump!

What an amazing article! I am currently busy with my rescue course and though passive panic is covered, this article have really opened my eyes as to how passive it can be!

I have not seen this article before and would have missed it, was it not for the Bump!

Copying and sending it to all the divers I know, as well as all the friends with pools, as well as all the parents.

 

[Searcaigh]

My daughter is currently doing her Rescue Course and I will make sure she reads this, and of course joins SB