Important Info on Drowning Prevention

[dbny]

I'm posting this link because even though I have been a swimmer most of my life, I had never known this. Everyone I've sent it to has told me they did not know either. This could save someone's life.

Drowning Does Not Look Like What We Think It Does.

[Capella]

I did not know any of this (and glad that I never needed to). Thank you for the link. A definite must-read.

[sk8pics]

I had to be rescued by lifeguards when I was a teenager at the beach in NY. Very scary, and no, I couldn't yell or wave my arms or do anything like what you'd expect. I really did think I was going to die, but the lifeguards noticed, and two swam out to get me. (One swam out on either side of the wooden fence (not pier, but wooden posts sticking up) in case the current took me to one side or the other, I guess.)

[mag]

Wow! Thanks for the link.

[numbers123]

I had to be rescued by lifeguards when I was a teenager at the beach in NY. Very scary, and no, I couldn't yell or wave my arms or do anything like what you'd expect. I really did think I was going to die, but the lifeguards noticed, and two swam out to get me. (One swam out on either side of the wooden fence (not pier, but wooden posts sticking up) in case the current took me to one side or the other, I guess.)

I'm glad you are ok and it must have been frightening.

I think the same is true about choking - I have been around several people who choked at sometime or other, and several with complete obstruction. None of those people did the "universal sign of choking". I assume in part due to some of the things noted in this article: ability to do voluntary movements vs. need to breathe.

[talulabell]

Wow... very interesting article. Thanks for sharing.

I'm glad you are ok and it must have been frightening.

I think the same is true about choking - I have been around several people who choked at sometime or other, and several with complete obstruction. None of those people did the "universal sign of choking". I assume in part due to some of the things noted in this article: ability to do voluntary movements vs. need to breathe.

My sister-in-law, who is a nurse, said one of the most tell-tale signs of choking is that the person leaves the room suddenly. We were having dinner at her house, and my brother, who drank a soda too quick or something and coughed a few times, tried to suppress it, then got up to go to the bathroom (to cough in private or something) and my SIL jumped out of her chair to follow, to make sure he was ok.

[rjblue]

Yes, all first aid courses teach you to follow someone who leaves the room like that, and stay with them until they can breathe normally.

I'm going to save this information and bring it up at my next first aid course. I didn't know this either.

At the last first aid course I took, the instructor told us about all the internal injuries he had seen in car accidents, with the injury caused by a full bladder. I always "go before leaving" since that time.

[zhenya271]

Wow, that information is sad, to think of children, people that might of been saved, but no one knowing they were in any kind of distress.

At the last first aid course I took, the instructor told us about all the internal injuries he had seen in car accidents, with the injury caused by a full bladder. I always "go before leaving" since that time.

I remember my husband telling me this before, and I always go beforehand and during trips I make sure I don't let reststop opportunities pass! Next time DH rolls his eyes, when I need to stop, I'll remind him about the bladder thing!

[Simone411]

Thanks for all the information. When I was 10 years old, I choked on a piece of chicken. None of family sitting at the dinner table realized what was happening because I couldn't cough nor say anything. I couldn't get their attention, either. I don't know how I managed to do it but I stuck my index finger and thumb in my mouth and reached down in my throat where it was stuck in the windpipe. I grabbed the piece of chicken and somehow pulled it out. I started coughing really hard afterwards grasping for breath and that's when my parents realized I had been choking.

Choking and drowning are very similar because the victim cannot cough or say anything.

[tarotx]

Thank you for this thread. I had learned this in a first aid class years ago but as a mother of a toddler I always look for the obvious signs so I needed to read the drowning and the choking info as a very very very important reminder. Thanks

[WindSpirit]

Great article, thanks for posting.

I almost drowned when I was around 8. No one around me noticed. I guess it didn't look bad from the surface. I can't swim. I lose my sense of direction underwater. I remember being under and seeing huge air bubbles going up and I thought that was it. But the instinct to survive made me move my body in a way that got me to the surface. It was not a deliberate movement, I remember that. I had no idea what to do. When I surfaced my sister put an air mattress on my head... She obviously had no idea what just happened.

When a friend of mine was drowning, we had no idea either. I thought she was playing with us. The water was shallow enough, I thought she was bending her knees to make only her face appear on the surface. Her head was tilted back a little bit, her hair swimming around her face. She didn't make a sound, she just looked at us, her face kind of frozen. We completely thought she was joking and we were laughing. Finally she got out on her own or I reached for her, it was so close to the shore and she told us she was actually drowning. We were shocked. Now that I remember it I think some guy either pulled or threw her into the water. No one thought she would be drowning, the water was 3/4 of her height or lower.

[myhoneyhoney]

Thank you so much for posting this!!!!

[sk8pics]

I'm glad you are ok and it must have been frightening.

Thank you. Yeah, it was scary, and I remember feeling like I should have had something more significant to say to the lifeguards other than, "Thanks."

[taf2002]

I always think of Barb Underhill & her 2 yr old drowning. So tragic.

[Gil-Galad]

Thanks for the article. Very important information - I will send the link to friends and family!

[Blue Bead]

I can really relate to that article; I was rescued from drowning when I was 10 years old. It happened in a large public swimming pool in Cincinnati. I was with my two male cousins, one three years older than me and the other the same age. I was closest to the older one when everything went haywire. I experienced every detail in that article. My cousin was clueless that I was in any sort of trouble. I couldn't call out because I was too busy trying to breathe. I still have nightmares of what my vision saw as my head bobbed in and out of the water. My body was vertical in the water with my arms outstretched. Try as I did I could not get my body to cooperate and float horizontally, and believe me, I tried. If it weren't for a sharp-eyed lifeguard I'd be long dead. It seemed that the lifeguard was in the water slipping his arm under me in the blink of an eye. I was out of the water and on the cement skirt around the perimeter of the pool in what seemed to be tenths of seconds. Oddly, I don't recall if he performed a formal resucitation on me. I was exhausted and I didn't really care; I was just extremely glad I was out of the water.