Help I'm drowning!!!!

[Jumptrout51]

Drowning Doesn’t Look Like Drowning
by Mario Vittone

Drowning? Not likely.

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:

1. Except in rare circumstances, drowning people are physiologically unable to call out for help. Th e 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.

(Source: On Scene Magazine: Fall 2006)

This doesn’t mean that a person that is yelling for help and thrashing isn’t in real trouble – they are experience 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 there 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.

If you have any questions at all – please post them in the gCaptain forums under “maritime safety”

disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by the author are not necessarily those of the Department of Homeland Security or the U.S. Coast Guard.

[big bend gyrene]

More familiar with some truths in the post than I wish, JT. Twenty plus years ago I saved a frat pledge who was drowning during a stupid hazing event. Exactly as the post shared, he didn't really go crazy... just sunk under three times, and the third time he didn't come back up. Most of my fellow brothers didn't even seem scared because of the relatively quick/silent nature of how he went down. I jumped in and thankfully remembered advice not to let someone drowning drown the rescuer in the process. He tried his best to push me down in order that he could get higher up in the water column, but I kept him at arms length while pulling him to shallow enough water that he could stand up and recover. Honestly, I don't know who was shook up more after he was safe -- took me a day or two to shake the nerves over how close he came to dying.

Many thanks for sharing the post. Wouldn't be surprised at all if it saves a life somewhere down the road.

[Jumptrout51]

Thank you for sharing that with us.
We might be surprised with how many life-saving events that have happened with forum members.

I personally have had 2 events where I saved a life.

In 1976 I was riding my motorcycle down to Shell Point with my (then) wife on the back.
When we came along the old Aux. Coat Guard shack,there were people in the channel swimming.
This one guy looked helpless to me.
Unlike the description above,he was floundering.
I told my wife hang on.
I laid the bike down and took off across the short beach.
My buddy and his wife riding with us did the same.
We both swam out and grabbed the guy at the same time.
He was fighting us the whole way to get above water.
It only took about 15 feet to get to where you could reach bottom.
Fortunately,we did and he did.
His wife/girlfriend was going nuts.
So was he.
Once we saw he was OK,we got back on our bikes and road away.

The next life saved was different.
I was working at a New York Times newspaper in Wilmington,North Carolina.
It was 1982.
A fellow employee had a heart attack.
I had been trained in CPR 10 years prior.
I saw people running towards the back of our building at a frantic pace.
Curious,I followed their trail.
On the floor was one of our Ad-salesmen.
Not breathing.
Not moving.
The Ad Director was sitting on his stomach,pushing on his chest.
I shoved the Ad Director off him.
Cleared his mouth and airway of the large tobacco chew he was famous for and administered the correct CPR procedures.
4 minutes later(according to other people) the medevac team came in and took over.
Two weeks later he came in to the office from the hospital stay and thanked me for what I did,especially knocking his boss off him and doing the CPR.
He said the emergency team told him that is what saved his life.
That made me feel pretty good that day.

What about you other folks?
Any life-saving situations?