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 10 feet away, their 9-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 50 feet away—what the father couldn’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: that’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, “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 No. 2 cause of accidental
death in children, ages 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 some of those drownings, the adult will actually watch the child 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.”
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 all right?” 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.
Correction, June 5, 2013: This
article originally cited a CDC statistic in referring to the number of
child drownings in which a nearby adult watches the child with no idea a
drowning is occurring. According to the CDC's Division of Unintentional
Injury Prevention, no CDC studies have measured the number of such
occurrences. The reference has been removed. (Return to the corrected sentence.)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Phil Petre
Phone: (918) 649-7555
email: philpetre@gmail.com
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Website: www.The20KSystem.info
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