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How to spot drowning


UWSkier
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  • Baller

This is pinned on another forum I frequent, and may have been posted here before, but always good to read and remember.

 

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. “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. 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 (page 14))

 

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.

So if a crew member falls overboard and everything looks OK – 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.

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  • Baller
Great article. From firsthand experience drowning victims are rarely able to cry for help due to inhaling water into their airway. Last week my family and I went river rafting in Jamaica. While going through some rapids my wife fell out of the raft and before anyone could respond she started to panic and sink below the turbulent surface. Almost no sound - just a panicked look on her face. Luckily someone was able to grab her arm and bring her close to the raft. She told me told me later that she tried to scream for help but when she took a breath to produce a sound she only inhaled more water. She's okay but still a scary moment.
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We had some friends visiting years ago. They had 2 small kids that we were letting swim in our hot tub. Everyone went inside leaving me to watch the kids. At one point one of the kids was very quiet and still and as I looked closely I noticed that the water level was just above her nose. I jumped in and grabbed her. She was gasping and coughing, and scared but otherwise ok. Lucky I noticed the water level, otherwise there was no indication she was in trouble.
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  • Baller

Had an incident with my son when I took the kids to swimming class. He was maybe 3 or 4, really don't remember, but small. His sister and the other bigger kids were jumping in at the deep end, because that is what kids do. He jumped in with them. Sunk right to the bottom. I was putting our bag and towels down at the other end of the pool, saw what he did and knew he was going to be in trouble. Ran down the side of the pool and dove in and pulled him out and he was throwing up and choking for air.

 

That scared the crap out of me and him. He was afraid of the water for years after that.

 

It happens in a flash.

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  • Baller
Good tips all around. I remember getting similar training when I was a lifeguard. I will add one thing specific to our sport, as it is surprising how many people really don't get this despite how obvious it is. When you're driving a ski boat to assist anyone having trouble in the water, there is only part of it that is useful - the swim platform. Watch the webcast of a tournament when a jumper crashes - it is funny how often the pickup boats nose into the skier as if the victim or their rescuer is going to climb into the bow or something...
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  • Baller

@Rob good point on picking up a skier.

 

Not to take this off topic but is there a best practice on returning to pick up a possibly insured skier? I know whenever someone takes a bad fall the boat always rushes back to get them. In doing so it also throws a wake. In a crash that could result in back or neck damage is this really the best approach or is it better to idle back (assuming a skier is not face down)?

 

My concern would be similar to a car accident that someone might have back or neck pain that you want to reduce the movement and throwing a wake right at a skier could potentially cause damage.

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@keithh2oskier, more important than the wake for a neck injury is to carry a Philadelphia collar in the boat if you are doing serious slalom (especially in a club boat.

 

We carried one in our club boat when I broke my neck and it might have saved me from major damage.

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Thank You so much for posting this. I swim alot on the weekends, with my friend's and I starting to do longer, 1/2 mile, 1 mile swims across the lake. Although in a group, we seldom talk because we're too busy breathing. This is allows us to be better prepared to help should the need arise.
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