LadyTY2Uall 355 Report post Posted June 5, 2013 [url]http://www.slate.com/articles/health...b_share_chunky[/url] 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. â??I think he thinks youâ??re drowning,â? 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. â??Weâ??re fine; what is he doing?â? she asked, a little annoyed. â??Weâ??re fine!â? the husband yelled, waving him off, but his captain kept swimming hard. â?Move!â? he barked as he sprinted between the stunned owners. Directly behind them, not 10 feet away, their 9-year-old daughter was drowning. Safely above the surface in the arms of the captain, she burst into tears, â??Daddy!â? Advertisement How did this captain knowâ??from 50 feet awayâ??what the father couldnâ??t recognize from just 10? 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: thatâ??s all of us) then you should make sure that you and your crew know what to look for whenever people enter the water. Until she cried a tearful, â??Daddy,â? she hadnâ??t made a sound. As a former Coast Guard rescue swimmer, I wasnâ??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 Responseâ??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 No. 2 cause of accidental death in children, ages 15 and under (just behind vehicle accidents)â??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. According to the CDC, in 10 percent of those drownings, the adult will actually watch the child do it, having no idea it is happening. Drowning does not look like drowningâ??Dr. Pia, in an article in the Coast Guardâ??s On Scene magazine, described the Instinctive Drowning Response like this: â??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 peopleâ??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 peopleâ??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 waterâ??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 peopleâ??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.â? This doesnâ??t mean that a person that is yelling for help and thrashing isnâ??t in real troubleâ??they are experiencing aquatic distress. Not always present before the Instinctive Drowning Response, aquatic distress doesnâ??t last longâ??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 legsâ??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 OKâ??donâ??t be too sure. Sometimes the most common indication that someone is drowning is that they donâ??t look like theyâ??re drowning. They may just look like they are treading water and looking up at the deck. One way to be sure? Ask them, â??Are you all right?â? If they can answer at allâ??they probably are. If they return a blank stare, you may have less than 30 seconds to get to them. And parentsâ??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.) This article is reprinted from Mario Vittoneâ??s blog. Join him on Facebook. Correction, June 4, 2013: The subhead for this piece originally misstated that in 10 percent of drownings, adults are nearby. In 50 percent of child drownings, adults are nearby; in 10 percent of those, adults are watching but do not know the victim is drowning. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
