Drowning Doesn’t Look Like Drowning

June 4, 2013 4:40 PM

In many child drownings, adults are nearby but have no idea the victim is dying. Here’s what to look for. (SL Slate)
posted by beisny (18 comments total)

Indeed. Also, this summer, if you're on a boat, wear a lifejacket. Make sure everyone on the boat has a lifejacket. I don't care how uncool you look. Please don't be a drowning statistic.
posted by GuyZero at 4:42 PM on June 4, 2013 [3 favorites]

Well that's horrifying.

Glad to have this information.
posted by Artw at 4:43 PM on June 4, 2013 [2 favorites]

Great feature, and timely, but it's a double. (Slate reprinted this blog entry, which was discussed here.)

(Probably worth discussing again. I'm not flagging this.)
posted by maudlin at 4:44 PM on June 4, 2013 [1 favorite]

"Would you let you kid play in a house where the owner had a gun?"
"No."
"How about a pit bull?"
"Oh, hell no."
"How about a swimming pool?"
"Party time!"
"Yeah, about that..."
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 4:47 PM on June 4, 2013 [1 favorite]

Starting in a boat and ending in the water, when you didn't plan on that, is a surprisingly terrifying experience, even right next to the dock. When it happened to me (dinghy capsized when overloaded) I was surprised, though, by how well I remembered the little bit of water rescue training I had.
posted by thelonius at 4:49 PM on June 4, 2013 [1 favorite]

The video that is linked to the article is pretty chilling. Shows actual video of a young boy drowning - with people all around him, no one understanding that someone is fighting for thier life in their midsts.

Great to have this information.
posted by helmutdog at 4:54 PM on June 4, 2013

In a week we are taking our 11 month old to her first swim lesson, it's one of those water babies programs put on by an extension of our hospital so we can hopefully help avoid this. Tho knowing how to swim of course doesn't stop you from drowning always. A cousin of mine drown when he was 18 and he knew how to swim, his friends didn't recognize the signs either. Also if you are unconscious or stunned it's pretty hard to swim. That is why we always wear life vests for water sports. They aren't for people who can't swim. They are seat belts or climbing harnesses for the water!
Safety first people
posted by MrBobaFett at 4:58 PM on June 4, 2013 [1 favorite]

Shows actual video of a young boy drowning

Huh. I didn't notice that before.

I was a lifeguard for years although I had the good fortune of no one actually drowning or even coming close to it while I was on duty. But in lifeguarding classes we had to simulate drowning while someone else rescued us and I'm surprised how accurate we were. No noise, head bobbing, vertical, arms trying to "climb a ladder".

It is indeed a pretty low-key event. Other than the part where someone dies.
posted by GuyZero at 4:59 PM on June 4, 2013

In first aid and lifeguard training, in multiple casualty situations, we always went by the rule of thumb that the person that's making the most noise, is probably in the least danger, it was the quiet one's you had to watch out for. In first aid situations that usually meant the person was in shock already and could go unconscious at any time.

In water based activities, we classified priority according to non-swimmer (actual drowning), weak swimmers (the splashing, kicking, screaming casualties who if left unassisted would probably become non-swimmers pretty quickly), injured swimmers (their priority usually depended on the specific injury) and unconscious casualties.
posted by TwoWordReview at 5:23 PM on June 4, 2013 [1 favorite]

The video of the "instinctive drowning response."

I'd read a bit about Pia's work, but you need to see the video to really get it. There's no way to know what drowning looks like other than to see it. It's worth a couple of minutes just in case you find yourself around the pool this summer and happen to see it again.

(Spoiler - the victim gets rescued)
posted by justsomebodythatyouusedtoknow at 5:26 PM on June 4, 2013 [2 favorites]

In a week we are taking our 11 month old to her first swim lesson

Our pediatrician suggested that these do not really work for drowning prevention. I was surprised to see that the AAP recently changed their position and seems to acknowledge that they might be useful. Momentary lapses in supervision are still the killer.
posted by a robot made out of meat at 5:29 PM on June 4, 2013

If you have kids, teach them to swim - or better yet, unless you're a good swimmer and teacher, go somewhere where they can learn to swim. My parents were mustard on us learning to swim properly - years of weekly visits, always in search of the next badge, to the local pool (situated, amusingly, in the local marine commando barracks, where a real rufty-tufty sarnmayja was charm incarnate to us under-tens floundering around next to the trained killers doing forty lengths. Many years later, I ran into him under different circumstances. "Devonian..." he said. "Devonian... Ah yes, I remember you. Not very good, but a real trier." Took a few years later for me to realise that was a compliment.)

And take all the water safety stuff seriously. You will look like an idiot in most things you are advised to wear, but everyone does. There will be plenty of times you're wearing stuff from Monty Python's wardrobe in situations where a sugar lump would find it hard to dissolve with conviction: does not matter. Water will kill you in many exciting and unpredictable ways, once you stop being in charge of things.

When you're on land, you can slump down and carry on breathing, under most circs. When you're on or in water, if you slump down, you will very often not carry on breathing.

(Last anecdote about the pool in the barracks. During the time we went, there were several periods of extended tension concerning the IRA, who quite liked taking a pop at our brave boys. My father's habit of turning to me as the car was searched on entry and saying in his best Oirish accent "Test the fuse, Paddy" was, grudgingly, tolerated. I don't personally remember the incident he swears happens: we turned up in our new Skoda, a rear-engined car, and when the squaddie doing the check popped the boot and saw what was inside he ran for his life... but if it did happen, it probably won us copious brownie points.)
posted by Devonian at 5:42 PM on June 4, 2013 [4 favorites]

Guess the poem should have said "not waving *and* drowning". This is the rare article that might save a life or two someday.
posted by uosuaq at 5:51 PM on June 4, 2013 [1 favorite]

I had a near-drowning experience as a kid. (Indoor pool, one of my first swimming lessons. My mom didn't/doesn't know how to swim and insisted that I have lessons.) I explicitly remember cycling between a) staring up at the caged gym lights and trying to use my arms to help my whole head and face fully break the surface, b) getting my chin above water long enough to spit out a mouthful of water, c) sinking down again and thinking that maybe if I got to the bottom I'd be able to push myself upwards with my feet, d) realizing after a split second that it felt like a scary-long way to the bottom and that I'd never make it, so trying to get back to point A.

In the end, it wasn't the lifeguard or swimming instructor that saved me. It was my very watchful mother, who jumped in, fully clothed, to grab me. (I was so little that what felt like the deep end was only chest-high to her.)

The upshot, and what always made it kind of funny to me, is that afterwards she was really embarassed to sit there next to the pool dripping wet in her street clothes. I realize after reading this, though, how very close I probably came to actually drowning, and how scared she must have been to actually jump into the pool as a non-swimmer.

Thanks, mom.
posted by mudpuppie at 6:21 PM on June 4, 2013 [11 favorites]

I have little doubt that more than once an adult has seen a child struggling in the water and done the mental calculus between "is that child in trouble... possibly," and, "will I wind up in court and possibly prison if I grab a nine-year-old and try to haul him or her out of the water... quite likely."
posted by ricochet biscuit at 6:21 PM on June 4, 2013

My parents were also very big on teaching us to swim and had us take swim lessons every summer as well as practicing with us every.day.all.summer in the lake we grew up near. When I was in middle school, I got an ear infection, but was trying to ignore it and didn't tell my parents how sick I was feeling because I was much more interested in going to our beach and hanging out with friends. I fainted while walking out on a diving board and fell into the water.

I was about 13 at the time, and had been swimming since I was 3- so I definitely knew HOW to swim. But losing consciousness and landing unexpectedly in the water, with a 102F or so fever- that was terrifying. Thankfully my sister was nearby and helped me out of the water and we went off to a doctor's office. (I solemnly swear this has nothing to do with the fact that I'm married to a guy in the Coast Guard now. Although my dad got a good laugh telling him the story when they met for the first time.)
posted by lyra4 at 6:25 PM on June 4, 2013

Water will kill you in many exciting and unpredictable ways, once you stop being in charge of things.

Oh yes - and you always think you're in charge until suddenly, shockingly, you're not. I've been maytagged in a hydraulic on the Ottawa River, and I literally kissed my PFD in gratitude afterwards. Would have kissed my wetsuit too, if it hadn't been so full of pee.
posted by Mary Ellen Carter at 6:34 PM on June 4, 2013 [1 favorite]

Mary Ellen Carter: "I've been maytagged in a hydraulic on the Ottawa River, and I literally kissed my PFD in gratitude afterwards."

Er...what does that mean? I was able to google "PFD", but what does the verb "maytag" mean, and what is a "hydraulic"?
posted by Bugbread at 6:40 PM on June 4, 2013