To many, Memorial Day weekend symbolizes the start of the outdoor swimming season and also means it’s time to take care to a)not drown b)recognize the signs of someone who is drowning. Mario Vittone in Slate has a must-read about the signs and how actual drowning doesn’t resemble the stereotype of someone drowing. To wit:
In some of those drownings, the adult will actually watch the child do it, having no idea it is happening.* 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:
–“Except in rare circumstances, drowning people are physiologically unable to call out for help. The respiratory system was designed for breathing. Speech is the secondary or overlaid function. Breathing must be fulfilled before speech occurs.
–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.
–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.
–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.
–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.”
And some other signs:
Look for these other signs of drowning when persons are in 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
I had two unusual experiences where I almost drown.
One was when I was about 10. My father had a boat and it was docked, I leaned over to get into it and I suddenly saw myself underwater going down very quickly and a big arm reached and pulled me up by the collar. I had fallen overboard and my father’s friend Stanley Friedman had seen me and quickly pulled me out. I was crying, shocked. I had jokingly referred to him to my brother hours earlier as “Stanley the Stinker,” the name of a popular puppet on a NYC TV kids show. But I never called him that again.
The other instance, closer to some of these warnings, was in the summer of 1982, my first summer in San Diego. I had just gotten into the Big Brother program and my Little Brother who had just turned 10 and I were at Mission Beach. Suddenly, I saw him being carried out by the tide, I grabbed ahold of his arm and he didn’t know what was going on and yelled for me to let him go, I tried as hard as I could to get him and myself to shore but the undertow was almost homicidal, trying to pull him and I under and out. I struggled, taking in water and gasping for air and saw a lifeguard jump off a tower and run in my direction but he was going slow. Through a superhuman effort I got us both to shore and laid on the sand gasping. If I had taken in any more water I would have passed out and one or both of us would have drowned.
The lifeguard had seen me trying to swim to shore holding this kid’s arm and pulling him. He saw how the tide kept me from making headway and even pulled me back.
graphic via shutterstock.com
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.