In many child drownings, adults are nearby but have no
idea the victim is dying. Here’s what to look for.
Children playing in the water make noise. When they
get quiet, you get to them and find out why.
Drowning is not the violent,
splashing call for help that most people expect. Many of us have 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 know what to
look for whenever people enter the water. Usually a child will drown without
making a sound. 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. Pie, 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 No. 2 cause of accidental
death in children, ages 15 and under - of the approximately 750 children who
will drown next year, many of them will do so within 25 yards of a parent or
other adult. In some of those drownings, the adult will actually watch the
child 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.”
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
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 all right?” 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.
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