I’ve been busy! Busy teaching many, many lessons to many, many wonderful students. This is the first year I’ve been without the safety net of a third party (ie. always contracting myself out by using someone elses pool and subsequently taking a pay cut to deal with their overhead) and I can say it’s been a complete success! So thank you, all my wonderful Squidkids! You’ve helped me launch my business on a new level.
But I’ve also been busy on the writing front. I finally sold a piece to one of my biggest dream markets — Parenting Magazine! Yes, I will have a piece on swimming in the Septemeber issue. That’s all I can say. Pick up a copy.
What I really have been trying to sell to the likes of publications like Babble.com, Salon.com, LA Times and The Christian Science Monitor is an essay I wrote about understanding what causes a dry drowning and how a dry drowning differes from a wet or secondary drowning. But alsa, no bites on this super-important topic. (Go figure; it’s timely and I have the chops to write it).
So as aservice to my swim community, I have posted my essay on the topic of dry and wet drowning in it’s entirety below …
We’re getting closer to that time of the year again for stories about fun in the sun, which also comes with your healthy dose of pool paranoia. Not to say last June’s tragic drowning of 10-year old Johnny Jackson of Goose Creek, North Carolina – who died more than an hour after exiting a swimming pool – wasn’t a shocking incident. Media, from local papers to Oprah, blew the warning whistle: It’s official your child can drown on land.
Details were quickly doled out. Jackson was in a pool where mom cited he swallowed a lot of water. Soon after complaints about feeling tired, the boy laid down for a nap an hour later he went into cardiac arrest. It was just that simple, or fatal.
Pediatricians were questioned on the technicalities of land drowning. Using words like larynospasm, hypoxia and acidosis, doctors explained in scientific terms what happens when a swimmer’s lungs either don’t get enough oxygen or intake little as a teaspoon of water.
But the information parents needed to wrap their heads around the most regarding Johnny’s unfortunate drowning incident were the little red flags that could have prevented mass misunderstanding and needless worry.
As a journalist who also teaches swimming, I’m about ready to find myself behind a kickboard more than a keyboard. Once again I will need to sort through the messages between the lines of Jackson’s story to assuage parental fears on the subject.
Red flag number one: Jackson had special needs, or more accurately, was diagnosed as autistic. I can testify it is more challenging to communicate water safety skills, including good judgment, to populations with special needs. Communication either by words, action or touch is crucial in teaching swimming. It doesn’t help that drowning is the number one cause of death among autistic populations, as the National Autism Association states children and adults with autism are often attracted to water sources such as pools, ponds, and lakes.
Which leads to warning sign number two, or the fact the victim had unknown swim skills. Coverage reported his mother had stated it was the first time the young boy had ever gone swimming. There are additional attributes Jackson couldn’t help, such as the fact he was male and African American – two more indicators he had a more likely chance of drowning, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data.
Another important sign: No lifeguard on duty. The boy was swimming at an apartment pool complex without any certified pool staff in attendance. Even the laziest, most hung-over lifeguard – and I’ve seen quite a few – would snap to attention and see disarray in the water, taking action to cover their certification or head.
This is when the fatal point occurred. Jackson could have experienced voluntary apnea or suspended breathing, caused from holding air too long under traumatic circumstances (like not being able to surface). It’s also possible the some kind of force took place to his diaphragm – a kick or a dangerous jump, which happens under improperly unsupervised swim situations – and allowed for water to enter the lungs via trachea. Either way, laryngospasms or the blocking of air brought on slow asphyxiation.
The family left the pool and walked home. Mom gave her son a bath and put him to bed as he complained about being sleepy. Articles even hinted Johnny “had an accident in the pool.” Results of reduced oxygen flowing from the lungs to the brain for any reason can cause behavioral changes. Signs of potential on-land drowning include a persistent cough, extreme tiredness or confusion. Unusual behaviors count as yet another flag.
The boy died technically of cardiac arrest on the way to the hospital brought on by pulmonary edema, or where your lungs fill up with your own fluids. That makes this a secondary or wet drowning and the reason why I outlined two potential scenarios: Media caused a misnomer by labeling the incident as a dry drowning. Another reason – or flag – as to why I encourage you to read between the lane lines this summer.
Most recent date reports 10 to 15 percent of 3,600 U.S. drowned deaths in 2005 were actually classified as dry drowning. I’m no mathematician (I’m a writer and a swim teacher, after all), but that’s an average of 288 per year. If you spot the red flags associated with last year’s high profile land drowning – combined with the slim chances of going under while dry – your swimming fears should be smoothed over by informative or otherwise calm waters. As I tell my swim students, compliments of the Red Cross, you want to think before you sink.
I also wrote about this topic here when the unfortunate incident first happened.
