Lesson 5: NEAR-DROWNING

NEAR DROWNING: DEFINITION, CAUSES, & SURVIVAL FACTORS

Drowning occurs when a person dies by suffocation due to submersion in water (or occasionally, other fluids). The term near-drowning is used to describe victims who have been resuscitated and survive for at least twenty-four hours. If the victim dies within twenty-four hours of the original incident, drowning is listed as the primary cause of death. If the victim dies after the initial twenty-four hour period, death is attributed to the complications arising from the incident, with near-drowning listed as a secondary cause of death. Drowning is the second leading cause of injury-related death for children ages 1 to 14. For every child who drowns, another 4 are hospitalized and 16 receive emergency-department care for near-drowning.

Drowning and near-drowning occur due to a variety of causes:

• Diving accidents, where a person may sustain a neck injury and be paralyzed to some extent, and be unable to move.
• Other water accidents (such as boating accidents) where a person may be unconscious in the water.
• Inexperienced (or experienced) swimmers who ignore their limits, and swim too far or too long.
• Swimmers overcome by illness, or have an accident of some sort in the water.
• Intentional causes: either a self-induced drowning or near-drowning, or a drowning or near-drowning caused by another person.
• Unsupervised children around ANY source of water. A child may drown in just a few inches of water, such as a tub, bucket or even the toilet. Many children are found floating in pools, victims of poor supervision and/or poor safeguarding of the pool from children.

• The victim’s age: children are more likely than adults to die sooner.
• How long the victim has been submerged: death is more likely the longer the victim has been submerged.
• The general health of the victim: healthy victims are more likely to survive.
• The temperature of the water: cold water is more likely to cause the “diving reflex”, which causes a decrease in respiratory and heart rates. The diving reflex also slows down circulation, diverting blood to the vital organs. Victims are more likely to be resuscitated from a cold water near-drowning due to this reflex. In cold water drownings, victims are not considered dead until they’re “warm and dead”, since in some cases, victims revive or are successfully resuscitated after core body temperature is brought back to near normal.
• The type of fluid that is involved in the incident. If the fluid is some sort of caustic fluid, it can cause damage to the body and lungs, if it’s ingested or inhaled.
  
  
  

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