Drowning Doesn't Look Like Drowning
Posted by Danielle Bean in Health on Monday, July 12, 2010 12:00 PM
All of us watch our children carefully and count heads around pools, lakes, and other bodies of water.
But would you really know if your child was drowning?
You might think so, but if you’re like me, this post by maritime safety blogger Mario Vittone will be a potentially life-saving eye-opener:
Drowning Doesn’t Look Like Drowning
As Vittone describes in the post, most of think that a typical “person in danger” in the water would be a big, splashy, noisy mess. But this is not the case.
A person who is drowning often isn’t able to catch his breath and therefore is unable to call for help, and the instinctive human response to drowning is not to splash your arms and legs against the water’s surface. They “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.”
I don’t mean to make any moms paranoid, but I do find it helpful to know what the typical signs of distress are. As a mom who generally watches for splashy screaming kinds of emergencies when my kids are swimming at the lake, I found this information to be helpful.
Now I’ll know to listen for silence instead of screaming. In particular, I think the post’s last words are an important reminder for parents and other who watch children swimming:
“Children playing in the water make noise. When they get quiet, you get to them and find out why.”
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