Drowning Doesn’t Look Like Drowning
slate.com
Drowning is not the violent, splashing call for help that most people expect.

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Every summer I repost this article on how to spot drowning. Please read it and pass on. In the last few years I’ve had SIX messages from people who saved a kid’s life after clicking on the link from my feed.

  • SocialMediaRefugee@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1·
    3 days ago

    Frank Pia observed people drowning and noted the actual signs of it.

    https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7559254/

    The description is based on the observations by one lifeguard, Frank Pia, of 13 persons who drowned at Orchard Beach (New York) during recreational activities. The persons entered the ocean in front of the lifeguard in water that was beyond their depth. The response includes a group of negative characteristics: the person is unable to call out for help, cannot wave for help, cannot voluntarily control their arm movements, and is unable to move in a horizontal or diagonal direction. The struggle at the surface of the water lasts between 20 and 60 s. A positive characteristic is non-voluntary controlled movements that consist of extending the arms laterally and of pressing down on the surface of the water to try to breathe. Sometimes “climbing ladder motion” is added to this, although no evidence for this could be found. Pia also mentions the behavior of people in distress: voluntary control of movements that consist of moving the arms and legs to keep the mouth above the surface of the water.