Drowning Doesn't Look Like Drowning!

[ikor]

Summer is coming. Some of you will remember that I have posted this before. I fully intend to continue to do so at least once a year. Please, for the sake of your children and loved ones, read this article...print it out and give it to friends, neighbors or business associates. It really is THAT important in a country where damned near everyone has access to a pool, lake, beaches or a dam!


"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:

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.
(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.

___________

disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by the author are not necessarily those of the Department of Homeland Security or the U.S. Coast Guard.

Read the article at gCaptain.com.


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

Also take a minute and watch the short video...

http://mariovittone.com/2011/07/vide...ning-response/

[prepare2win]

Thanks for that Ikor, learn something new here everyday

[hypervdm]

Informative post.
Thanks

[Dirk777]

Thanks Ikor!

[BadBoyTazz4Ever]

I'm sure you won't mind me reposting this on another Forum i regularly visit...

Thanx for the post, as mentioned before learn something new everyday.

[BrandonMorgan]

Thanks for that.
I have two daughters so I love reading and learning these types of things.

[camouflage762]

Lifesaver describes drowning tragedy

2012-03-26 08:40
http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/Ne...agedy-20120326


Lifesavers at Bluewater Bay in Port Elizabeth, where six rugby players are believed to have drowned after being caught in a current. (Deon Ferreira, Die Burger)

• Rugby practice ends in tragedy
• Rugby player drowns, 5 team mates missing
• 21 swept to sea off Port Elizabeth

Cara-Lee Scheun and Vera Schoeman, Die Burger


Port Elizabeth - One of the lifesavers who tried to rescue 21 people who were swept away by a current at Bluewater Bay on Sunday, has described the incident as "incredibly traumatic".

Seventeen of them were members of the same rugby club. By late on Sunday night, one of the club members had been confirmed dead and five teammates were still missing, plunging the Port Elizabeth rugby community into mourning.

Brendon Helm, one of the lifesavers who helped to bring 15 people to safety at Bluewater Bay, described the incident on Sunday.

Desperate

“It is something I will always remember. Only eight of us and 21 desperate people with wide open eyes begging to come out. Some of us took out two or three at a time and almost got into trouble ourselves.”

Fernando Cain of the beach's management office said it had not been necessary to take the 15 rescued people to hospital, but they were treated for shock.

Motherwell Rugby Football Club team manager Mcdisi Mazamba said they had taken the team to the beach on Sunday morning for a last practice session before a tournament in Cape Town over the Easter weekend.

After running up and down the dunes for several hours, some of the team members took showers while others went to cool down in the sea.

Helm said the group had only been in the water for about 10 minutes when all hell broke loose. “Everything was peaceful, the sea was calm and they were up to their chests in the water. The next moment we just saw arms and hands in the air as the current swept them away.”

Lifesavers regional chairperson Dave Bamber said seven lifesavers were at the beach instead of the usual four.

“Bluewater Bay is one of the city’s safest beaches. It was the first time in 43 years that we had a drowning here.”

Current usually not dangerous

Helm said they were well aware of the current but it wasn’t usually dangerous. “As long as you remain calm, keep your head above water and try not to swallow too much water, it will take you and leave you a bit further on.”

"But unfortunately it didn’t happen like that this time. It was hell.”

He said some of the drowned men had clung to their arms for dear life while others held on to the lifesavers’ kayaks.

Bluewater Bay lifesavers club leader Gareth Catherine said the lifesavers were all heroes. “They put their own lives at risk without a moment’s hesitation. I am very proud.”

Claude Kleynhans, who was at the beach, said the tragedy happened within seconds. “When I looked again, all the swimmers had been pulled in and two were floating already. I immediately dived in and could get one out at least.”

The beach was closed for the rest of the day and counsellors arrived to assist the players, their family members and lifesavers to deal with the trauma.

National Sea Rescue Institute station commander Ian Gray said three of their rescue boats had helped search for the missing players. The search will continue on Monday.

The names of the deceased and missing have not been made public.

[MyLani]

I was there.
Wasn't a great day for PE.
Another person drowned at Sundays river after falling off a boat after they did a sharp turn.
That's 7 people drowned in one day in PE!

[Glocky]

I learned from this post , thanks

[ikor]

Bumping this again with the onset of spring / summer...be careful out there