Drowning is one of the leading causes of death for young children. Adults can also drown easily too, which is something you might not know. In the United States, there are 2,960 fatal unintentional drownings each year and 8,080 nonfatal drowning incidents. This statistic is based on several scenarios.
One in four drowning cases in emergency rooms involve alcohol, according to Andrea Zaferes, the partner at Lifeguard Systems and an aquatic death investigator. Getting caught in currents, medical emergencies, or overestimating swimming ability also causes adult drowning. The following are tips on detecting and preventing adult drowning:
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Initially, Drowning Victims Might Listen To
You
Drowning is indeed a silent, invisible crisis (and you would be correct), but a person can communicate distress to others, Zaferes said, even hearing directions and following them. The woman’s husband saved her after she swam out in the ocean to retrieve her child’s ball. He shouted instructions to her when she went too far.
“She’s panicking, but she did swim all the way out there… he’s shouting at her, ‘Get on your back! Get on your back!’ All of a sudden, she heard him and got on her back, and she started to slow down,” Zaferes said.
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Swimmers Drown Silently, So Check The
Victim’s Face
In most cases, you can tell if someone is drowning if you can see their face, said Dr. Graham Snyder, an emergency medicine physician at WakeMed in Raleigh, North Carolina. A drowning response is instinctive, he explained. They are always quiet and bobbing up and down when they drown – their eyes wide open, mouths open, and ears open. They’ll look like they’re having fun.