Drowning Doesn’t Look Like Drowning

[mercuryblues]

several years ago I read this on a DU thread. With summer coming it is time for a refresher.

http://mariovittone.com/2010/05/154/


The new captain jumped from the deck, fully dressed, and sprinted through the water. A former lifeguard, he kept his eyes on his victim as he headed straight for the couple 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 daughter 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.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. Thank you for posting this.

SO important!

[Kali]

2. no shit

if you can spash and wave and yell, you are probably fine

[kirby]

35. Not true

if you can spash and wave and yell, you are probably fine

Splashing, waving, and yelling can be the first phase of distress when someone realizes they are in trouble, but before they are actually in the process of drowning. Not really fair to say that is 'probably fine'.

[myrna minx]

3. K&R.

[Marrah_G]

4. I pulled a toddler off the bottom of the shallow end once

She had not made a sound. Her mom had looked away for a moment when the little girls was sitting on the stairs. In the chaos of lots of kids at a family party she slipped under and if I hadn't been fortunate enough to walk by and look down it could have been tragic.

No splashing or crying, one minute she was playing and the next she was on the bottom.

[renate]

8. Well done!

You're a hero! Man oh man, if I were you, whenever I felt the tiniest bit blue I would think of that rescue and feel like the greatest person on earth.

[Marrah_G]

10. Really it was just luck

It was a wake up call to all the moms in the family, myself included. After that the little ones all wore baby life vests...even sitting on the stairs.

[MAD Dave]

40. I was a lifeguard for 3 years.

It is extremely freaky to what someone go totally non-swimmer on you. They exhale their breath and sink!

The first was a tired out 6 yo at the pool I worked at 20 years ago. The second was my daughter last summer. I amazed myself with the quick reaction and everything. It was surreal.

[peabody]

5. Excellent Post

Thanks for sharing this!

[Hoyt]

6. Thanks. I've seen little kids just sink without a sound until pulled out.

Good message.

[LadyHawkAZ]

7. K&R

[SunSeeker]

9. k & r

[arcane1]

11. I remember reading something like this a while back, maybe even here!

It deserves reposting and sharing!

[mercuryblues]

12. I think DU

Was also where I originally read it.

[ChazII]

13. passive vs active drowning

Thanks for this reminder, mercuryblues.

[Thor_MN]

14. A year ago I was on Aruba with my cousin's family.

I was in the pool with my cousin's 4 and 7 year year old daughters. There was a small slide into that end of the pool, into about 3 feet of water. The 7 year old was pretty much free to do what she wanted, the 4 year old needed her life jacket. The 4 year old wouldn't go down the slide with out me there to "catch", but all I really was doing is slowing her down a little, then she would paddle herself over to the ladder. She was on her way to the ladder and I saw, out of the corner of my eye, someone go down the slide. Wrong color swimsuit, neither of "my" girls. Quick glance to find "my" girls, look back and a 2-3 year old is standing on the bottom with a foot of water over her head. Launch towards her and her dad and I get to her about the same time. He came in over the edge of the pool from the hot tub about three feet above the pool.

She was 7 feet in the air and crying in probably about less three seconds after she hit the water, although it seemed to take forever to cross the 4 feet that separated us. She never made a sound until she was back above the water. I will never forget what that little head looked like under the water.

[Mnemosyne]

16. You did good.

[abelenkpe]

15. K&R nt

[flamingdem]

17. This happened to me at 2-3 years old and I even remember it

My parents went out to swim together in a lake.
I wanted to join them since it looked like they were having fun.

I walked into the water and I remember the water closing over my head
and I think that it felt odd but I wasn't afraid, too young to know better.

I felt an arm picking me up and a stranger saved my life.

Just a year ago I told my mom this story and really bummed her out!
Didn't mean to but I thought it was interesting that I maintain the memory.
Should I feel lucky? Probably this man knew about this kind of quick and
quiet drowning. My mom of course felt very guilty even many decades
later, ooops.

[GETPLANING]

25. Something similar happened to me

I dove off a platform into a rock quarry that had filled with spring water. The water at the surface was cold, but below about ten feet it was freezing. My muscles just froze and refused to respond. I kept sinking until I blacked out. I woke up on the ground, an alert lifeguard had watched me dive in and not surface. It's a miracle they found me at all, the quarry was very deep.

[flamingdem]

26. well let's celebrate

getting past those major blips in life!!

[midnight]

18. K&R

[Boudica the Lyoness]

19. Not Waving but drowning.

Not Waving but Drowning.

Nobody heard him, the dead man,
But still he lay moaning:
I was much further out than you thought
And not waving but drowning.

Poor chap, he always loved larking
And now he's dead
It must have been too cold for him his heart gave way,
They said.

Oh, no no no, it was too cold always
(Still the dead one lay moaning)
I was much too far out all my life
And not waving but drowning.

Stevie Smith 1957

[dothemath]

20. Hero

A real honest-to-God hero. And he isn't a basketball player, football player, rapper, actor, etc. Shut the ....... front door!

[Blue Palasky]

21. I rescued my younger brother when i was 6

I shit you not, my mother and youngest brother (baby at the time) were no more than 6 feet away when i noticed his head was bobbing...I guess that's the term. The silence is what confused me and made me grab him. Man, that still freaks me out to this day.

[Honeycombe8]

22. Really? I didn't know that. Thanks for the info. nt

[dothemath]

23. Hero

A hero to all of us, including me. I would be willing to bet the Captain would say no, he was reacting to a dire situation and did what had to be done. Thank you, sir.

[GETPLANING]

24. I was a lifeguard during my university years

And rescued a few drowning swimmers. This account is accurate. Drowning victims don't really struggle that much, as they are running out of oxygen and slowing down. They just sink as they try to swim or push off the bottom.

[Beacool]

27. Sounds about right.

When I was 6 years old I almost drowned. We lived in a house with an indoor pool in PA and I was playing at the shallow end while a guest of my family was doing laps. I don't recall how I ended up standing at the bottom of the pool, but I still remember looking up and watching with fascination as the man swam above me. The man noticed me at the bottom of the pool and pulled me out, but I still love the water. After the pool incident my mother took me to the YMCA to learn how to swim.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

28. "that dramatic conditioning (television) prepares us"

So true in so many ways, not just drowning.

TV makes people think it is expected and acceptable to lose your head and act like an idiot when a disaster or tragedy strikes. That is an abnormality in the sweep of history. It's very destructive in real life to those around them. Sure. Some people always did, but most people dealt with whatever was going down as best as they could.

[mercuryblues]

29. really, thank you all

I wish these were available when my older kids were young. I bought several for my youngest, who is now 11 and he loved it. He even wore it even after he learned to swim. It helped me to be able to relax (a little)when we were near water.

It is a perfect birthday gift for the young kids. I have no clue why I don't see more kids wearing them.

http://www.shop4lifejackets.com/flotation-swimsuit.htm

To all those on this thread who have saved kids, you are true

[Granny M]

30. Kick

[Recursion]

31. I remember this from my lifeguard days

This is a great piece; thanks for posting.

[4_TN_TITANS]

32. Years and years ago I went thru Red Cross

swimming lessons up to the test for lifeguard, but had almost forgotten this. Well timed PSA, thanks.

[TinkerTot55]

33. I've observed 3 near-drownings of three different kids....

...at different times, and in all three cases, the first thing I saw were just their eyes looking up at me. No splashing, no frantic movement....and I remember thinking, "that's not right." Two of the children were within FEET of their parents, who hadn't noticed them just slip silently off the side of the pool into the water, and the third child was being held underwater by an older brother who didn't understand that small children aren't able to hold their breath for four minutes or more. All were pulled up and out to safety, but it chills your blood to think their lives could've ended so silently, without any struggle.

Life jackets, life jackets, life jackets!!!!!!!!!!!
And swimming lessons, as soon as possible.

[lapislzi]

34. My grandmother disappeared.

In full view of 20 people. She was not a swimmer and had thought she'd stepped into the shallow end of the pool for a little splash. She stepped into the deep end and quietly vanished.

Fortunately, my uncle was a quick thinker and fished her out before she could drown. It was a harrowing sixty seconds.

Thank you for posting this. Everyone needs to read it.

[zipplewrath]

36. This was the most useful sentence

And parents – children playing in the water make noise. When they get quiet, you get to them and find out why

[plcdude]

37. thank you

I am a trained life guard and WSI and I can vouch by numerous experiences for this article. The one thing I would add to this is that when you are in the process of rescuing someone you have to protect yourself as well. Drowning people big or small are desperate and they can overwhelm you if you are not careful so expect it even though it may not happen. I have had a 20' X 40' pool in my back yard for decades. My children grew up with it and they can all swim very well but I consider this pool to be the same thing as loaded gun and should be treated as such. Rule # 1 No one to this day is ever allowed to be in the pool without someone else there in or watching the swimmers in the pool. I have grandchildren now so it continues to be SOP.

[Walk away]

38. As a life guard I saved three people from drowning...

In one case I spotted the woman in a lake with other swimmers around her and seemingly fine. When I looked back and counted heads she were gone. I was on my board in less than a minute and pulled her off the bottom. Another guard helped me bring her in and someone else did CPR. I thought I was too late but she made it. Not one of her friends noticed she was in trouble. I was eighteen years old and, decades later, I still count heads and make a mental note of the people around me when I'm in the water. Especially the kids.

[azurnoir]

39. Thank you for posting

and it's all too true

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

41. Not Waving But Drowning

Not Waving But Drowning

Nobody heard him, the dead man,
But still he lay moaning:
I was much further out than you thought
And not waving but drowning.

Poor chap, he always loved larking
And now he's dead
It must have been too cold for him his heart gave way,
They said.

Oh, no no no, it was too cold always
(Still the dead one lay moaning)
I was much too far out all my life
And not waving but drowning.

Stevie Smith

[truebluegreen]

42. Like reply #24, I was a lifeguard during my university years

at a lake, which early in the season was quite cold.

The above account is very accurate, there is very little outward sign, certainly no yelling or splashing. People in trouble will generally face toward safety and I could tell just from their expressions when it was time to go after them...it was as if a traffic light turned red, "no, I can't". They'd freeze, and start to go under. Funny (odd) thing was, for many, once they saw one of us coming, they would relax and be able to maintain until we got there.

[uponit7771]

43. What does drowning look like then? tia

[neffernin]

44. I once possibly saved a boy from drowning

while going tubing the Salt River here in the Phoenix, AZ area. A few boys though it would be smart to try to swim down the river (which really is tame but the protection of tubes is GREAT at times in shallow rocky water). I'm pretty confident the one didn't know how to swim very well because the moment there was a current he went under; fortunately he was strugging to get above the water and that drew my attention and I swam to him with my tube and got him to the edge of the water.

Some people just ask for it :/

[Quixote1818]

45. Here is a video of how fast it can happen and how it can look

[mountain grammy]

46. Thank you for this post and all the stories posted here. Someone may have saved a life today.

I learned plenty. I do constantly count heads when my granddaughters are in the water.

[obxhead]

47. I think I've seen this posted on DU every spring.

I'm glad it was posted again this spring. Hell, I hope it's posted a few more times over the next few months.

[Fantastic Anarchist]

48. I remember when I was about six or seven ...

... my mom dropped me off for swim lessons (my first day). After class, everyone went to the water slide. Not knowing any better, I did, too. I didn't realize that this was in the 'deep' end of the pool. I slid down the slide, and then prepared myself to land my feed on the floor of the pool and stand with my head out of the water. Except that didn't happen. I remember it vividly. I did lash around, but mostly under water. I wasn't able to get my head above water to scream, though I tried like hell. Eventually, about 25 (long) seconds later, an instructor held me up above the water and took me to the side of the pool. I was definitely rattled having just had the shit scared out of me. About a half hour later when my mom came to pick me up, I made the stupid mistake of mentioning what happened to me (I still wanted to learn how to swim!). My nervous Jewish mother would not let me go again for a few more years.

Finally said fuck it, and taught myself.

That and she wouldn't let me jump on my friend's trampoline. Except one day, the trampoline was standing on edge while my friend's parents were cleaning it. A gust of wind pushed the trampoline down towards where I was standing (my back was to the trampoline). The edge bar hit me right on the noggin.

I was about 10 or 11. I just got up and had to admire the irony as my friend and I laughed it off.

I've averted many similar situations - though I have no wood to knock on now. If I stop posting, you folks know what happened.

[Faryn Balyncd]

49. 2 incidents:

Incident #1:
late 1940's: the family story (of which I have absolutely no memory):

We were vacationing on Lake Travis. Without their awareness, I has followed my 2 older brothers and my sister down to the lake, where they had jumped off a diving board and were playing in the water. At some point, my siblings saw me floating face down, motionless in the water, where I had apparently followed them and jumped off the diving board. They retrieved me, and my oldest brother performed the 1940's version of CPR, which consisted of placing me on my stomach on the ground, and alternately pressing on my back, followed by pulling my arms forward. My siblings said a large amount of water came out of my my mouth, and I became responsive, then OK.

I have no memory of the event at all, but do distinctly remember that every summer for several years, when asked if I wanted to take swimming lessons, I declined. I remember telling eveeryone, "I already know how to swim, i just don't want to." (whereupon I would demonstrate, while standing, how to move my arms in an Australian crawl, turn my head to the side to breathe, and describe kicking my feet.... But I would not go in the water until about age 10.


- - - - - - - - - - - - -


Incident #2, early 1990's, Memorial Day weekend:

I took my 2 sons, both pre-teens, and 2 friends fishing at the Texas City Dike. A popular spot was a small island approximately 150 yards from the dike, easily reached by wading through water 2-3 feet deep at most tide levels. Currents has created a "hole" near the island. As was our practice, I had insisted we all wear life jackets while wading or fishing from the islands. However, I believe we were the only ones there with life jackets. We tried wade fishing for trout or reds unsuccessfully, then noticed the only folks catching fish were catching croakers in the "hole", so we sat down at the edge of the island and started to fish the hole.

Although no one remembers seeing anyone walking near the hole, at some point we saw a human head appear just above the water,bout 30 feet off-shore, making no sound. It quickly went under, then re-appeared, still no sound. Trying to make sense of it, I remember asking a person who was fishing next to me, "What is he doing?", whereupon he replied "I think he's drowning."

My oldest son, approximately age 12 (& a summer league swimmer but not yet a beach patrol life guard), stripped off his life jacket and started to swim to him. Having visions of a desperate drowning person overpowering a 12 year old, I called my son back, grabbed his discarded life jacket, and swam to where the head was, wearing my life jacket and carrying my son's . When I got to the man, I held out my son's jacket, which he was able to use to stay afloat. He coughed up a profuse amount of Galveston Bay water, while I pulled him back to shore.

It was only then that we noticed a crowd of his friends who were on the dike, approximately 150 yards away, and who had been desperately yelling for someone to help their friend when they saw their friend go under.... He had seen people walking in the 2-3 foot deep water going to the island, and had decided to walk to the island, but had not realized that the path he chose went directly over the deep hole which he (a non-swimmer) inadvertently wandered into, dressed in street clothes and shoes.

The man and his friends were profusely thankful, although because of a language barrier our ability to talk was limited.

Both of my sons, as well as one of their friends who came fishing that day, later trained and served as beach lifeguards.




- - - - - - - - - - -



The memory that is most bizarre remains to be the sight of that soundless head appearing just above the water, with no visible struggle, then slipping under and re-appearing. Others reported that the head again went transiently under the surface while I was swimming out to him. Yet no sound was made, and no splashing until I handed him the life jacket.