Unconscious Incompetence

Keywords: Drowning, Near-Drowning, Cold-Water Immersion

The Story: Today marked the official beginning of summer. With cold water pouring off the mountains and flooding our rivers and lakes, this is a good time to review some eye-opening statistics on drowning. Here we go. Drowning is the second leading cause of injury-related death for kids age 1 to 14 - second only to automobile accidents. 80% of drowning vicitims are male. Younger kids tend to drown in swimming pools, older kids in natural settings. Girls are more likely to drown in the bathtub than boys. Minorities drown in disproportionate numbers. Alcohol, lack of PFD, lack of supervision, physiological (swimming) failures caused by cold water, boats, panic, and overestimation of swimming skill are all noted contributors to water related fatality. In the 1 to 14 age group, there are 5 immersion ER admissions for every drowning death. It is estimated that there is one drowning for every 600 near-drownings. If you fall into icy cold water, and you are very young, you might be in luck. At least one vicitim has been resuscitated after more than 70 minutes of immersion in such conditions. This fact has been touted in both my Wilderness First Responder and Swiftwater Rescue recertifications this year - both instructors independently stating the "new record" is 73 mintues. Some records are not meant to be broken.

Additional Reading:
http://www.cdc.gov/ncipc/factsheets/drown.htm
http://www.thedoctorwillseeyounow.com/articles/other/drown_7/

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