Drowning Doesn't Look Like Drowning
A drowning person doesn't wave their arms; they're using them to keep their head out of the water.
A drowning person doesn't yell; they haven't got enough breath.
Drowning looks nothing like what you've seen on television.
Roughly half of all children who drown do it within 25 metres of a parent or other adult, and in 10% of the cases, the adult watches it happen because they don't recognize what they're seeing.
Please read the linked article to learn what drowning really looks like, and please heed its advice--if your kids are in the water and they go quiet, get to them quickly and find out why. Someone who is drowning can only keep themselves at the surface for 20 - 60 seconds.
Article by Mario Vittone, found via Janet Reid's Twitter.
3 comments:
I would have defiantly fallen into the TV drowning category of what drowning looks like. I never new, good post Sis!
Oof, thank you for this. My littlest little likes to go out to us before getting our attention in the pool. Several times we've had to yank her out as she silently struggles in the water.
I actually was aware of this, but I've had life saving training. And I can tell you that people choking often don't look like they are choking to others. I had that happen to me once, and people were looking at me like they were waiting for me to say something--that polite thing people do, cuz it looked like I was formulating a thought to them I guess despite the bugged eyes and me clutching my throat! I had the presence of mind to dig the offending piece of food out myself, fortunately, and it cleared my airway.
You just don't know how it looks to others, and the human tendency to assume that things are normal, fine, nothing out of the ordinary going on is the default mode for most of us. We have to be aware of that in ourselves and others.
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