It's summer. Do you know what a drowning person actually looks like? Read here.

[Scarlett O.]

I had absolutely no clue. I, like most people, thought that drowning looked like what we saw on the movies. Thrashing. Flailing. Screaming for help.

No wonder so many children die every year of drowning - just mere feet from their parents and other people.

http://gcaptain.com.nyud.net/maritime/blog/drowning/?10981

 

[FriendofSpurgeon]

Excellent post.

Please, please, please make sure that (1) your children know how to swim and (2) your children know how to save others who are drowning.

Also, if you live or visit near the ocean, please teach them how to get out of an undertow situation.

These are life & death situations and it's simply incredible the number of children (and adults) that do not know how to swim and know basic lifesaving.

 

[Scarlett O.]

All I can keep thinking of is how did I get to be 48 years old and not know this? I would have taught this the last week of school to my students every year for the past 27 years. I had no clue.

Here's a testimony from someone on another board who read this article.

[QUOTE-Anchor (from the FFF)] My son is a lifeguard instructor and I have been a certified lifeguard for as many years as I can remember. Very few times have either of us had to actually rescue someone. However, once you've seen someone revert to that instinctive drowning position there is something so gripping and unnatural about the position of the face in the water that it is difficult not to instantly recognize it even in a crowd. Training videos do as well as they can, but even then the staged nature of it does not do it justice.

What is truly weird is that anybody, once instinct takes over, is incapable of doing anything but. I had to retrieve another lifeguard one time that was a much stronger swimmer than I am, but had gotten in a situation and instinct took over. He would have been graveyard dead without help, even though there was no physical reason he could not have swum or treaded his way out of the situation.
[/QUOTE]

 

[Gwen]

Thanks, Scarlett. Excellent info for us all! I would never have known what to look for, and thought thrashing around and screaming for help was the sign that someone was in trouble. I hope and pray that I never have to see someone in this position, but I'm better informed now if I ever do.

 

[Gina B]

I don't remember anymore how old I was, but my brother saved me from drowning. I was somewhere between 7 and 10. Ever since then, I've thought that it would be the best way to go.

It was the most peaceful moment of my life. I didn't know until you posted this that the reaction of my body was normal. In fact, I couldn't answer and wondered myself when I was yelled at and asked why I didn't scream for help or anything.

I knew I was drowning, but nothing about my body worked right, and I didn't feel like I could even try. I was in a pond and all the members of my family were sitting on a picnic bench a little ways away. I saw them and remember thinking "they don't even know and they aren't even looking," then my head went back and I was just looking at the blue sky, totally at peace, hands at my side like I was standing...very very peaceful feeling, and I remember being angry that my brother disturbed the process. It just was so peaceful and natural. There was no pain and no sensation of suffocating at all. Totally different than what you'd think you'd feel.

Maybe that part comes later though. I coughed or somehow dispelled water and was fine, didn't require medical attention. I think I was sick for about a week after, but that was it.

Cool looking sky though...can't imagine a better way to go than looking up at a perfect sky and know it's where you're headed!

 

[menageriekeeper]

THanks Scarlett. Very good info.