Drowning Doesn't Look Like Drowning

[chris_gerrib]

I can only barely remember not being able to swim. My grandparents lived a block away (a small-town, even little kids can walk it block) away, and they had a pool. I have one vague memory of sitting in a little kiddie pool, but all the rest of my memories are in the pool, and I have no conscious memories of learning how to swim.

Grandpa, who'd learned how to swim in muddy creeks and ponds, taught me to swim with my head out of the water, which somebody in the ROTC midshipman training program attempted to un-learn me of, but the attempt never took. At any rate, I don't swim much any more, but I do know how to.

That's why this article, drowning doesn't look like drowning, (found via Making Light), concerned scared the crap out of me. See, the article says there is an "instinctive drowning response." When this kicks in:

1) Drowning people physiologically can't call for help.
2) Drowning people can't wave their arms - instinct takes over and they instead try to use their arms to float.
3) Voluntary movements, like grabbing a rope, become impossible.
4) From start of response to full submersion is less than a minute.

Most of what we assume "drowning" looks like is actually "aquatic distress" and may be a precursor to actual drowning. So, what does drowning look like?

- 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

News you hopefully won't need to use.

Comments

[daveon.livejournal.com]

I've had a few arguments with the usual suspects about rescuing somebody in distress in water. If you don't know what you're doing, be very very very cautious.

A drowning person can drown you if you aren't ready to be physical with them. Part of the life saving courses I did involved handling somebody grabbing hold of you when you're not ready and getting out of it safely.

Even worse, people jumping into the sea, a lake, a river when they don't have a clue what they're getting into vis-a-vie currents, depth of water, under water conditions.

I can't remember not being able to swim myself either but my mother (county swimming teacher) drilled open water safety into us from an early age.

[chris-gerrib.livejournal.com]

Is there anything The Usual Suspects (tm) aren't an expert in?

[(Anonymous)]

LOL - hard to say. I'm quite prepared to believe that they're all significantly more expert in firearms than myself, but given that my entire _lifetime_ exposure to firearms is a couple of post-work trips to a firing range, it's not exactly a hard one.

Most of the arguments I've had with people are about people not jumping into rivers to try and rescue people from cars/drowning/whatever - where they'll imply that that's not what a real Heinleinian Competent Man would do.

Sure it's not. But Heinlein's heroes had the benefit of not actually being real - which limited the chances of them making a bad situation much worse.

Water is significantly more dangerous, even for good swimmers, than most people give it credit for.

Movies don't help here. The number of times I'll watch a "hero" take a dive into water of unknown depth to rescue somebody they can't see drives me potty. Have they never heard of a straddle jump?

Why do they never see them breaking their head open on the rusted shopping cart stuck 2 feet under the surface?

[daveon.livejournal.com]

That would have been me... for some reason the browser logged me out.

[daveon.livejournal.com]

Umm... probably not, messers Kroger and Dunning seem to have that one covered :)