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Old 03-22-13, 01:28 AM   #1
Jrob78
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Default PLEASE READ - Drowning doesn't look like drowning

Someone posted this on the Texas Fishing Forum and I wanted to repost it here.

"Are you alright?" is a question to ask anytime you see someone who has stopped an activity. For instance, while kayaking/canoeing ask "Are you alright?" anytime you see a fellow paddler on the shoreline. 99% of the time they are just taking a break. the other 1% could be dehydrated and getting delusonal or approaching collapse. (especially applies to racing)

On the water, the playing field, bike or hike trail, mall walker, car on the side of the road etc etc. Asking "Are you alright?" could save a strangers life.

Drowning Doesn't Look Like Drowning
by MARIO on MAY 18, 2010
BOATING SAFETY,COAST GUARD,GCAPTAIN
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.

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.
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Old 03-22-13, 08:41 AM   #2
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I've read that before, and it still makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up. If you don't know what you're looking for, somebody could drown 10 feet away from you, while you're watching them......
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Old 03-22-13, 06:21 PM   #3
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Very, very good post. Thank you for posting it. This should be taught in our schools.
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Old 03-22-13, 08:23 PM   #4
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thanks man...everyone should read this. great thread.
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Old 03-23-13, 11:24 AM   #5
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Thats something evereyone needs to know. Thanks for posting it here in the forums!
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Old 03-24-13, 11:47 PM   #6
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Great post Joe. I can only imagine how horrible the parents of that little girl must have felt. I grew up going to the lake every weekend, we actually have pictures of me in my grandpas Bass Cat when I was 2 weeks old and I would bet that you could count on two hands how many spring/summer weekends we didn't go until I was 15 or so and still have fingers left over. As a result I am an above average swimmer, or at least used to be. I remember that even though I was a strong swimmer as a very young kid, mom and dad still had a rule that if we could see the water I had to wear a life jacket. I was never to get out of their site or wonder off but knowing how kids are it was better safe than sorry. Britney and I have the same rule for Lake, lucky for him life jackets for kids have come a long ways in the comfort area. Lake started swimming lessons a few months back and is doing pretty good which makes me nervous and gives me comfort at the same time. The thing that I didn't realize is drowning deaths with kids usually happen when they are unattended (get your head out of your *** mom and dad). Because of this they make Britney and I watch Lakes lessons through a window from a seperate room so he learns to handle himself in the water without having us there.
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