This is what drowning ACTUALLY looks like
Drowning is not the violent, splashing call for help that most people expect to see as they do in movies.
Drowning does not look like what television and movies make it out to be, and for this reason you could just mistake a child drowning for a child being okay this coming spring/ summer.
We might still be experiencing winter, but we are largely near the end thereof, and will soon be heading into spring and summer time. These are two seasons in which swimming (and in turn, drownings) undoubtedly increase, just as the temperatures do.
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.
Also Read: How to perform CPR
When someone is drowning there is very little splashing, and no waving or yelling or calling for help of any kind. In an article written for Soundings magazine, Mario Vittone referenced a Dr Francesco Pia who had previously explained what the instinctive drowning response actually is.
He broke it down into points, with some of them being:
• Except in rare circumstances, drowning people are physiologically unable to call out for help. The respiratory system was designed for breathing. Speech is a secondary or overlaid function.
• 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, and inhale, let alone call out for help.
• Drowning people cannot wave for help. Nature instinctively forces them to extend their arms laterally and press down on the water’s surface.
“This doesn’t mean that a person who is yelling for help and thrashing isn’t in real trouble – they are experiencing 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 their own rescue,” Mario explained.
Instead of what we’ve come to expect, here are some of the typical signs to look out for when someone’s drowning:
• Head low in the water, mouth at water level
• Head tilted back with mouth open
• Eyes glassy and empty, unable to focus
• Eyes closed
• Not using legs
• Hyperventilating or gasping
• Trying to swim in a particular direction but not making headway
• Trying to roll over onto the back
• Appearing to be climbing an invisible ladder
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