Just back
from our July 4th holiday, Kidspace parent Cathy Fedele told me
about her reactions when she noticed a drowning woman dockside near her
lakefront home. Cathy described her sense that something was amiss and yet what
she was seeing seemed almost okay, but, no, not okay at all. She was trying to
think of how to best respond. She had
her toddler in arms and her 3 year old by her side, and someone seemed to be
drowning in front of her. Did she dare run for the life ring quite a ways away
to toss? Would the woman even be able to grasp it if she did? Cathy certainly
couldn’t get down into the water herself and leave the children on the dock. She
called to the woman to confirm she needed help, then yelled loudly for others
nearby to come assist. A couple people Cathy could not see did hear her and
went out to the woman and brought her in.
I recognized all the emotions and thoughts
Cathy described. I learned from personal experience how quickly and silently
someone can begin to drown. It’s an eerie feeling and somewhat disorienting
when such imminent danger exists yet things seem surreally calm.
When I was
four I was drowning in a lake within a few yards of my parents and they didn’t
notice. My big brother did, though, and I felt his hands grope for me and pull
me to the surface after what seemed to me an eternity under the water. My
mother didn’t think I was in trouble until my brother jumped in. I was in
swimming lessons every summer of my life after that and became an instructor
and life guard and a scuba diver during my college years. Yet, when my daughter
was five she nearly drown in my brother’s backyard swimming pool with nine of
us adults seated around the pool chatting, all of us quite experienced swimmers
and all ultra cautious with children around pools. We didn’t hear a thing to
alert us, no splashes, cries, or gurgles. But, when my husband and I glanced
her way we suddenly saw she wasn’t seated on the first step anymore with her
cousins but was near the center of the pool, treading water silently, her eyes wide
and intent above the surface, her paddle board out of reach. We couldn’t
believe how quickly it had happened and how unreal it seemed as we both jumped in
to get her. So I understood Cathy’s distress and relief when she recognized a
woman drowning silently in the water. Her quick responses led to a successful rescue.
She was able to recognize that drowning doesn’t look like drowning because she
had read the article she shares with us below. I knew it was something very timely
to share with every Kidspace family in the midst of our glorious summer when we
are all spending time by the water. Thank you, Cathy!
Cathy
writes, I had an experience where I'm pretty sure I saved someone from
drowning because I yelled for help after recognizing what's described here.
The woman ended up ok, but I was shaken, and [my son] was a bit
traumatized ("I didn’t like how you yelled at that lady"). I'm
so glad I had read this article one month ago [in Slate.com, appears below, too]. Hopefully your 4th was
safe and boring!
Drowning
Doesn’t Look Like Drowning
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. According to
the CDC, in 10 percent 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:
1. “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.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. 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:
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 4, 2013: The subhead for this piece
originally misstated that in 10 percent of drownings, adults are nearby. In 50 percent of child drownings, adults are
nearby; in 10 percent of those, adults are watching but do not know the victim
is drowning.
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