If I'd seen this before, I would have posted it at the start of the summer: Drowning Doesn't Look Like Drowning. This is incredibly useful advice for people who live in a state with more than ten thousand lakes, or people who live on the coast, or people who live in places with swimming pools, or places with water, period.
Key point: drowning doesn't look the way it's portrayed in TV, with thrashing and splashing and gurgling cries for help. It looks like this:
- Head low in the water, mouth at water level
- Head tilted back with mouth open
- Eyes glassy and empty, unable to focus
- Eyes closed
- Hair over forehead or eyes
- Not using legs – Vertical
- Hyperventilating or gasping
- Trying to swim in a particular direction but not making headway
- Trying to roll over on the back
- Ladder climb, rarely out of the water.
You know, somebody ought to publish that in the Minnesota newspapers every spring. It might save some lives.
(via Making Light)
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Untrained people (that would be YOU) often fail to recognize drowning. In this way, people often drown mere feet away from those who could rescue them. One in ten children who will drown this year will drown with their parents watching the process, not knowing what they are looking at.
It is the time of year that we talk about drowning. I’m focusing here on the US, and for the most part, recreational drowning, as opposed to being drowned in a flood. Also, I'm using mainly information from Minnesota as an exemplar.
Huxley's grandfather takes him to swimming lessons every week, and between grand-dad and mom, Huxley goes to a pool about once a month outside of "class." This has been going on for about two years, and Huxley is about two years old.
According to the Centers for Disease Control, some 3,600 people drowned in 2005, the most recent year for which there are statistics.