This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Health & Fitness

Drowning, Near-drowning and Delayed Drowning

After this year’s harsh winter, summer can’t seem to come soon enough.  To many, especially children, summer means a new mermaid bathing suit, some super fast flippers and hot days spent at the pool, lake, and beach.  There is lots of laughing, ice cream, protests against another application of sunscreen and everyone goes home happy and tired at the end of the day

Cardiac Companion wishes this type of summer fun for all, but the reality is that inevitably, EMS will be called to save a child who has drowned.  The fact is, they can’t because drowning is death.  A child may be saved from a near-drowning (survival of a drowning event involving unconsciousness or water inhalation), but serious complications can occur. No one goes home happy or tired, but instead traumatized and devastated, wishing they could turn back the hands of time.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, drowning is the second most common cause of death in children and ranks fifth overall for unintentional injuries in the U.S.  In addition, 70% of drownings of young children occur in pools at private homes. Contrary to what is portrayed on television and in movies, people who are actively drowning do not thrash about and scream.  In fact, they will not capture your attention because of an automatic reaction called the “Instinctive Drowning Response”. 

Find out what's happening in Wiltonwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Subtle signs of the “Instinctive Drowning Response”:

·      A drowning person's mouth bobs below the surface, with little time to come up and get air.

Find out what's happening in Wiltonwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

·      A drowning person is unable to speak because breathing comes first.

·      A drowning person's arms are pushing down against the water, unable to wave or grab for safety.

·      A drowning person's body is upright with no kicking to help them to surface.

·      A drowning person's struggling on the surface happens in 20- to 60-second intervals before going back under.

 Delayed drowning happens after a problematic incident in the water.  During an incident water is actually forced into the lungs and not discovered until it's too late, resulting in death within one to 24 hours after the person has been in the water.

Symptoms of delayed drowning:

·      Continued coughing, often uncontrollable, for many hours after incident

·      Trouble breathing or shortened breath

·      Chest pains

·      Extreme fatigue and/or lethargy

·      Change in typical behavior

·      Face becomes pale

Therefore, if you see a child or friend get knocked down by a wave or swallowing water and sputtering and coughing after jumping into water, they should be monitored closely.   Should you see any of the above-mentioned signs, get emergency help immediately.

 In drowning, cardiac arrest is the true “cause” of death. As well as the direct effect of oxygen deprivation, there are also dangerous effects on blood chemistry if water is taken into the lungs. The mechanism for this is different for fresh and seawater. Cardiac arrest occurs faster in a person who drowns in freshwater vs. saltwater.

Freshwater taken into the lungs is pulled into the pulmonary circulation by osmosis. This dilutes the blood and leads to the bursting of red blood cells, resulting in the elevation of potassium level and a decrease in sodium levels.  Such electrolyte imbalance disrupts the electrical activity of the heart, causing the heart to go into a lethal arrhythmia known as ventricular fibrillation. In animal experiments this effect was shown to be capable of causing cardiac arrest in 2 to 3 minutes.

Seawater is saltier than blood and it poses the opposite danger because the salinity actually pulls water from the bloodstream into the lungs, thickening the blood. Thicker blood requires the heart to work harder and leads to cardiac arrest in 8 to 10 minutes.

One thing that all near-drownings have in common is that the resuscitation procedures are the same.  The individual must be pulled out of the water, 911 should be activated, CPR begun and immediate defibrillation with an AED.  CPR helps keep the blood circulating, but only defibrillation can treat someone in cardiac arrest and possibly save a life.  It is for this reason that it is critical that all public pools, lakes and beaches have AEDs readily accessible.  In addition, having bystanders who are trained in CPR and AED use increases a drowning victims chance for survival.

Drowning prevention should be the ultimate goal, but can only be achieved if parents and caregivers of children in the water are attentive at all times. Children playing in the water make noise, lots of noise.  If things suddenly become a bit too quiet, take that as a warning sign of a possible problem.

 

 

 


We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?