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Then one of my colleagues told us about her experience in high school when she tried to save a drowning classmate in the pool. When she got hold of her classmate in the water, the drowning classmate gripped her neck. The grip choked her, and her classmate's weight started pulling her down into the water. My colleague said she could barely breathe. She thought that she was going to die that day. To make things worse, all their classmates were actually watching them and they were all laughing at them coz they thought the two of them were just playing and joking. 😨😭
It's so timely that I read a very educational article related to this topic entitled "Drowning doesn't look like Drowning". The information was very eye-opening for me.
Our idea of how drowning looks like is based on what we've seen on TV and the movies, right? A drowning person on TV and movies looks like this - he/she makes violent splashes on water, waves for help and even cries for help.
Apparently, in real life, drowning does not look at all like that. When a person is drowning in real life, there is little splashing, there is no waving, there is no yelling and there is no calling for help of any kind. It's very silent. 😨
Because true drowning doesn't look like the drowning we see on TV and movies, unfortunately, it's the second cause of accidental death for children 15 years and below (just after vehicular accidents). And sadly, about 50% of children who drown annually, drown within 25 yards of a parent or adult. 😭💔 But the most heartbreaking statistics is that about 10% of these children who drown, were watched by a parent or adult while they were drowning - except that the parent or adult don't realize that they were drowning. 😭💔💔💔
Why can't a drowning person call or wave for help?
When a person is drowning, his/her mouth is not above the surface of the water long enough for the person to breathe or call out for help. If he/she does get a chance to get his/her mouth above the surface, the instinct is to gasp for air (not call for help), then the head starts to sink below the water again. This is the reason why a drowning person cannot even call for help.
A drowning person cannot think of waving for help either because instinctively, a drowning person would extend his/her arms and press down on the water’s surface so he/she can lift his/her mouth out of the water to breathe. The struggle on the surface of the water is usually from 20 to 60 seconds before submersion occurs.
Here are some other signs to watch out for to determine if a person is drowning based on the article:
- 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 / no kicking of legs
- Hyperventilating or gasping
- Trying to swim in a particular direction but not making headway
- Trying to roll over onto the back
- Appears to be climbing an invisible ladder
So next time, if you see someone in the water who looks like he's ok such as he's just treading water and looking up the deck, he may not necessarily be ok but is actually drowning. To be sure, call out if he is ok and if he's able to answer, then he's good. But if he isn't able to answer or he returns a blank stare, then he may be drowning.
The same goes for kids or adults in pairs or group (like my colleague's experience) - even if they look like they are playing, when they cannot answer your question if they're ok, maybe they are in trouble too. And we've only about 30 seconds to save them. But since most of us are not trained lifeguards (and may end up drowning too), I think the first thing we need to do every time we are in a pool area or the beach is to spot where the lifeguards and lifesavers are so we know where to find them in case of an emergency.
P.S. If you think your family and friends' idea of drowning is still based on tv and movies, please share this information with them. It could save lives.
