Web News & Drowning Alerts
Coronavirus Status
View your shopping cart Your cart is currently empty. Go to the shop
RSS
Home
Parents And Kids Parents And Kids Water Safety For Kids Parents On a Mission Safety Tips Blog Educational Videos Pool Safely Campaign Infographics Pool Maintenance Tips
Parents And Kids
Water Safety For Kids
Parents On a Mission
Safety Tips Blog
Educational Videos
Pool Safely Campaign
Infographics
Pool Maintenance Tips
Get Featured Writer Submission Guidelines Submit On-line Article & Photo Authorization Form Submit On line Short Swim Lessons Instructor (Q&A) Interview Form Submit On-line Water Sports Q&A Interview Form Product Reviews Meet Our Contributors
Writer Submission Guidelines
Submit On-line Article & Photo Authorization Form
Submit On line Short Swim Lessons Instructor (Q&A) Interview Form
Submit On-line Water Sports Q&A Interview Form
Product Reviews
Meet Our Contributors
Resources COVID-19 Resources Drowning Data/Reports Virginia Graeme Baker Pool & Spa Safety Act TITLE XIV–POOL AND SPA SAFETY Layers of Protection Around Aquatic Environments to Prevent Child Drowning The Lautenberg Chemical Safety Act (LCSA) Water Rescues Recreational Activities Educational Videos
COVID-19 Resources
Drowning Data/Reports
Virginia Graeme Baker Pool & Spa Safety Act
TITLE XIV–POOL AND SPA SAFETY
Layers of Protection Around Aquatic Environments to Prevent Child Drowning
The Lautenberg Chemical Safety Act (LCSA)
Water Rescues
Recreational Activities
Water Sports Kitesurfing Windsurfing
Kitesurfing
Windsurfing
Shop Cart Checkout
Cart
Checkout
About Us
Contact Us
Search for
Sidebar
by Mario Vittone
T he new captain jumped from the cockpit, fully dressed, and sprinted through the water. A former lifeguard, he kept his eyes on his victim as he headed s traight for the owners who were swimming between their anchored sportfisher and the beach. “I think he thinks you’re drowning,” the husband said to his wife. They had been splashing each other and she had screamed but now they were just standing, neck-deep on the sand bar. “We’re fine, what is he doing?” she asked, a little annoyed. “We’re fine!” the husband yelled, waving him off, but his captain kept swimming hard. ”Move!” he barked as he sprinted between the stunned owners. Directly behind them, not ten feet away, their nine-year-old daught er was drowning. Safely above the surface in the arms of the captain, she burst into tears, “Daddy!”
How did this captain know – from fifty feet away – what the father couldn’t recognize from just ten? Drowning is not the violent, splashing, call for help that most people expect. The captain was trained to recognize drowning by experts and years of experience. The father, on the other hand, had learned what drowning looks like by watching television. If you spend time on or near the water (hint: that’s all of us) then you should make sure that you and your crew knows what to look for whenever people enter the water. Until she cried a tearful, “Daddy,” she hadn’t made a sound. As a former Coast Guard rescue swimmer, I wasn’t surprised at all by this story. 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.
The Instinctive Drowning Response – so named by Francesco A. Pia, Ph.D., is what people do to avoid actual or perceived suffocation in the water. And it does not look like most people expect. There is very little splashing, no waving, and no yelling or calls for help of any kind. To get an idea of just how quiet and undramatic from the surface drowning can be, consider this: It is the number two cause of accidental death in children, age 15 and under (just behind vehicle accidents) – of the approximately 750 children who will drown next year, about 375 of them will do so within 25 yards of a parent or other adult. In ten percent of those drownings, the adult will actually watch them do it, having no idea it is happening (source: CDC). 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.
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.
(Source: On Scene Magazine: Fall 2006 (page 14))
This doesn’t mean that a person that 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. They can grab lifelines, throw rings, etc.
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
Ladder climb, rarely out of the water.
So if a crew member falls overboard and everything looks OK – don’t be too sure. Sometimes the most common indication that someone is drowning is that they don’t look like they’re drowning. They may just look like they are treading water and looking up at the deck. One way to be sure? Ask them, “Are you alright?” If they can answer at all – they probably are. If they return a blank stare, you may have less than 30 seconds to get to them. And parents – children playing in the water make noise. When they get quiet, you get to them and find out why.
(See a video of the Instinctive Drowning Response )
Join me on Facebook Reprinted with permission
Mario Vittone has been heading offshore since 1985. His first experience with at-sea emergencies came that first year as ship’s company aboard the USS Coral Sea, a WWII era aircraft carrier. Joining the Coast Guard in 1991 he worked at Training Center Cape May before transferring to the Cutter Point Franklin as a helmsman and small boat coxswain. He graduated from Helicopter Rescue Swimmer School in 1994 and began his career as a rescue swimmer with two tours at Air Station Elizabeth City, one at Air Station New Orleans, then finally as an instructor and course developer at the Aviation Technical Training Center in Elizabeth City, NC. He recently retired from the U.S. Coast Guard following four years as a vessel inspector and accident investigator in Norfolk, Virginia.
Mario is a leading expert on immersion hypothermia, drowning, sea survival, and safety at sea. His writing has appeared in Yachting Magazine, SaltWater Sportsman, MotorBoating Magazine, Lifelines, On-Scene, and Reader’s Digest. He has developed courses for municipal rescue teams and the military on search and rescue tactics and open ocean survival. In 2007, he was named as the Coast Guard Active Duty Enlisted Person of the Year and was named as the 2009 recipient of the Alex Haley Award for Journalism. Mario lives with his family in Coastal Virginia, and when he’s not writing about the water he can be found on his 32 foot St. Tropez, making sure she stays above it.
Website
Boating, Sailing Awareness Initiative Focuses On Education And Personal Watercraft Rider Responsibility August 13, 2014
Corona Virus COVID-19 Updates
Marina and Boating Safety Tomas Leclerc, M.S. (Editor)
Tomas Leclerc, M.S. (Editor)
Pool Safety With Your Dog
Popular
Recent
Comments
Chlorine, by any other name, is NOT the same December 14, 2013
Drowning Doesn’t Look Like Drowning February 3, 2011
Common Swimming Pool Questions and Answers November 13, 2010
Pool Maintenance: How to Clean Your Swimming Pool November 14, 2010
Using PFD’s: Helpful or Hurtful When Learning How To Swim? June 25, 2013
Aquaticity: A New Way to Assess Water Skills August 5, 2022
Morris County holds water safety awareness talk on the 7th anniversary of Christopher D’Amico’s death June 29, 2022
Jacksonville college student awarded Carnegie Medal for saving boy from drowning June 29, 2022
Coast Guard rescues 7 after lightning strike 100 miles off Tampa Bay June 28, 2022
Mary Mara, Actress in ‘ER’ and ‘Law & Order,’ Dead at 61 After Drowning In St. Lawrence River June 28, 2022
Meet parents advocating for water safety and drowning prevention.
This is very good information! To be safe takes knowledge, direction , information, training and so much more! Safety is a way of living! Knowing how to swim is just the beginning of been safe around water. It is so good to have a magazine that encompasses different aspects and point of views! ~ Frances Cabrera
Water Safety Magazine focuses on drowning prevention, and being safe in and around water. The mission is to educate, inform, have fun, and save lives.
About the Magazine Drowning Reports PoolSafely Campaign Coronavirus (COVID-19) Updates
June 5, 2020 Pool Safety With Your Dog
May 25, 2020 Facts about Kids and Dangers of Drowning
May 15, 2020 Stay Healthy When Going to the Pool
Copyright © 2022 Aquatic Safety International, LLC. All Rights Reserved. | Water Safety Magazine. ™
Our Partners in Drowning Prevention: | PoolSafely.gov
Contact US | Sitemap | Advertising | Terms of Use | Privacy Policy
Download tips for safety around the pool and information on the Virginia Graeme Baker Pool & Spa Safety Act
PDF (English)
PDF (Español)
Chlorine, by any other name, is NOT the same Chlorine, by any other name, is NOT the same By Jenelle Lockard ...
Chlorine, by any other name, is NOT the same By Jenelle Lockard ...
Common Swimming Pool Questions and Answers Common Swimming Pool Questions and Answers by Rachaelle Lynn Online Marke...
Common Swimming Pool Questions and Answers by Rachaelle Lynn Online Marke...
Coronavirus (COVID-19) is it safe to go swimming? Coronavirus (COVID-19) is it safe to go swimming? f course it is...
Coronavirus (COVID-19) is it safe to go swimming? f course it is...
Types of Chlorine Sanitizers for Swimming Pools Different Types of Chlorine Sanitizers for Swimming Pools ...
Different Types of Chlorine Sanitizers for Swimming Pools ...
Pool Maintenance: How to Clean Your Swimming Pool Pool Maintenance: How to Clean Your Swimming Pool by Rachaelle Lynn Onlin...
Pool Maintenance: How to Clean Your Swimming Pool by Rachaelle Lynn Onlin...
Calcium Hypochlorite Calcium Hypochlorite (Cal-Hypo) any of us relate swimmin...
Calcium Hypochlorite (Cal-Hypo) any of us relate swimmin...