Drowning: Avoid being a statistic

With the country’s beaches jam-packed and people gathering around the swimming pools over the festive season, children can get easily out of sigh and stand the risk of becoming a drowning statistic.

According to Netcare 911, they responded to more than 2 018 call outs of drowning and near drownings for January to October in 2012.

There is however an interesting trend currently and although one would think that South Africa’s coastal areas experience the greatest increase in drowning incidences, Netcare 911 revealed that they received more calls relating to drowning and water-related emergency incidents from the country’s inland provinces than it has for the coastal areas.

According to Peter Feurstein, Netcare 911’s Regional Coastal operations manager, many of the calls received from the coastal provinces, involving children, resulted from freshwater sources such as public and private swimming pools, rural dams and rivers. There is also a noticeable trend in terms of the age differences of the children

involved in these incidences he said.

According to Feurstein, there seems to be a definite distinction between inland and coastal incidents. “Coastal incidents seem to be involving the age group of 10 to 18 year-olds more predominantly whilst, inland, the greatest number of incidents involve the two to eight-year-old age bracket.”

Feurstein believes that this trend can be explained by the fact that warning campaigns about water safety are seemingly more adhered to, as well as the heightened sense of awareness in the coastal areas. He explains: “During the previous holiday season, for instance, the Vodacom Netcare 911 Surf Rescue Service five helicopters were made available to volunteer rescue workers from the National Sea Rescue Institute (NSRI), Lifesaving SA and Netcare 911.”

According to Netcare 911 in Gauteng, they have picked up on the fact that most of the drowning incidences they have been called out to, involve children of people who are not used being around swimming pools.

Netcare 911 in Gauteng said they attended to several children of domestic workers who had drowned, or nearly drowned, at their parents’ place of work. According to them some of these children are from other provinces and come to visit their family for the holidays and are not familiar with swimming pools or the hazards that lie within. “Interestingly, as many of the employers do not have small children themselves, their pools are not protected, which leads to avoidable tragedies,” Netcare said.

Swimming pools, even those where permanent lifeguards are on duty, however are not the only places where children can easily drown Netcare 911 stated. According to them 90% of children who drown are under some sort of supervision at the time.

Netcare 911 warned that a small child can easily drown in only a few hundred millimetres of water.

“We have even attended to a child who had fallen into a large plastic bucket that was being used to clean nappies. Parents and childminders should be aware of all the water hazards in and around the home, including fish ponds, water features, toilets, pets’ water bowls, boreholes and open drains.”

One of the scariest statistics is that, for every child that dies from drowning, five are left with permanent brain damage as a result of the prolonged lack of oxygen which occurs during a near drowning. According to Netcare 911 it takes only four minutes without oxygen for irreversible brain damage to occur.

Drownings are listed as one of the top causes of unnatural death among children in South Africa. At the same time, these unfortunate events are very preventable.

Drowning prevention

Prevention is better than cure. Here are a few tips:

• Be vigilant and keep a watchful eye on the children around water

• Keep pool gates locked or cover your pool with a certified pool net.

• A basic course in first aid and CPR can make a dramatic difference in the outcome should the skills be applied

timeously.

• In any emergency situation the most important thing to do is immediately contact the correct emergency number for the relevant authority.

• Try and memorise the number for emergency services in your area and keep the number saved on your cell phone or close to your landline telephone.

• The best manner to prevent drowning is through effective education and training. According to Netcare 911 children should be educated and swimming lessons is also an option. They should be taught how to tread water, float and to be safe in different watery locations. Teach children to swim with a partner, every time. From the start, teach children to never go near or in water without an adult present. Most important is to perceive and avoid the risk – when in doubt whether it is safe to enter water – don’t!

Should you find yourself in the position of having to call for help, please call Netcare 911 immediately on 082 911.

Photos: Denese Lups and Emergency Medical Services