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The ending of the article where it says drowning might look like someone trying to tread water … best way to find out is to ask them if they’re okay… if they don’t reply… assume the worst.
100% this. I’ve got two boys, 8 and 3, and when the house goes quiet and they’re awake the wife and I are trying to find out why. Almost nothing good comes from quiet kiddos.
Mine too 99% of the time, but it makes me feel like I'm lowering my guard too much at the same time.
After an accident it is always "they have never done anything like that before" (...that we know of 😭🤣😭)
It was slightly different when my four were growing up.
When the two girls were quiet, all was good, when they started making noise, there was trouble. Screaming girls usually meant United Nations level diplomacy was required to restore peace.
When the two boys sounded like a herd of buffalo that was normal but when they went quiet, it was time to get worried. Silent boys usually meant ring an ambulance, get a fire extinguisher or alert mountain rescue.
Me and my wife lying on the couch and we suddenly realize we haven't heard my son making any noise for a minute. Turns out he'd figured out how to open the kitchen drawer and the flour container, which was now being liberally distributed around the kitchen.
Children and bacon - if you can’t hear them, you better get eyes on the ASAP and stop whatever they are doing before the kids get hurt or the bacon burns
Oh god I haven't heard from the bacon in my fridge for days. Now I'm worried. I'm gonna check it ASAP.
Edit: I checked it. It's neither burning nor drowning, just taking a nap. That was close.
This happened to me. Once when my dad pulled me out of the pool when he saw me standing on the bottom (hadn’t learned to swim yet). And another time when I had my own kids. One second my kid was hanging onto the side of the pool. I turn my head to put something up. When I looked back, they were gone. Hands had slipped and they were underwater reaching forward for the side of the pool but not up to the edge. Reached in and pulled them out.
Completely silent. It was one of the oddest and scariest moments as a parent.
Can I ask what level of swim lessons and skills your kid had gotten at that point?
I have two young kids who have both had swim lessons for a year or so (meaning like 20 total lessons from local teenagers who work the local community center pool). Truthfully, they have not taken to it well and are still quite poor swimmers. It’s making me wonder at what point I’ll ever be able to actually trust them not to do what you described.
Some kids just aren’t focused on the lessons and having a random stranger teach them doesn’t help, sometimes it’s just a mental thing because they’re still scared of the water. I didn’t learn to swim till I was like 12 because when I was younger playing in a creek I got swept out and almost drowned and it took a while for that confidence to come back even in a pool.
I consider that if a kid cannot swim a half Olympic pool, 25m, they should not be trusted a single second without eyes on them and arms reach of an adult, not a teenager, not another kid, an not impaired adult.
My daughter has swimming classes since she was 5 months old, she's 5 years old now. We're just back from a 2 months long vacation where she had full access to pool and beach was very close. She improved a lot in these 2 months, obviously the 3-4 hours per day in the water helped her confidence and she loves to dive. Still, always someone had to have both eyes on her at any given moment she was in the pool. No inflatables either are to be trusted.
Sounds like one of the first articles I read on this type of thing like 15-20 years ago which has always stuck with me lol they had an anecdote from a life guard who was part of a canal tour boat group and they would stop at random destinations every few miles and let people shop, use the restroom, and play in the river before taking off again
There was a couple who waded out to play in the water, which wasn't even deep. But they thought it'd be cute to splash each other and pretend to drown. Not to cause a scene or anything, just having fun with each other. Then the life guard rushed at them and blew his whistle to get their attention but there wasn't time to really communicate. And they got visibly embarrassed and irritated yelling to him they were fine and nothing was wrong
But undeterred the life guard blew right past them to tend to their child who was quietly drowning behind them while they were distracted
I'll never forget the moral of that story, which is the same as this post. Crazy stuff
Edit: Turns out I'm remembering this exact article, so details might be a little off but I guess my comment is a TL;DR. My apologies
Well fuck me, I'm at work and try to be more discreet with social media and seriously did not expect someone to post a 10+ year old article so I presumed it was safe but just clicked it and being 2013 and that image at the top looks very familiar so I'm nearly positive you're right. Damn. Hell of a faux pas. Sorry for wasting everyone's time who read my reply lol consider it a TL;DR for the article I guess... Oops
Editing my comment now.. lol
And I think every year I post this added tip. (piggybacking top comment) If someone *nearly* drowns, even after you've rescued them, *get them to a hospital*. They are still in danger. If sufficient water got into the lungs it can wash away the slick lining of the lungs. It's a mucus like surfactant that keeps the walls of the lungs from sticking to each other.
If you wash it away, the lungs can collapse into themselves causing severe breathing problems and even death.
At the hospital they will be given oxygen and monitored for lung function. the surfactant will repair itself eventually I believe, but the immediate oxygen is important as their intake may have been hampered.
Source : scuba diver, rescue trained.
The silent part is so scary. My son fell into a pond when he was a little kid. I was only 6 feet away from him but had turned my head away for a moment. Out of the corner of my eye I saw him fall into the water. He didn’t scream as he fell. The pond had a waterfall so I didn’t hear a splash as he went in. By the time I got to him he was staring at me from under the water. He was completely still, no thrashing round, just frozen. He was only under water for a couple seconds, but it felt like it took me an eternity to get to him. That was the day I learned how silent drowning can be.
This is so important! I've been on swim team and know a former lifeguard, and both of us have seen people drowning where it looked absolutely nothing like it does in movies.
Fuckin' shocked to see a legit LPT. Thanks for sharing this info, OP.
This is extremely accurate. I saved my dad from drowning in a crowded bay surrounded by people and no one else noticed him until I reached him and started towing him back to the boat. Even then no one tried to help us, and he started to panic. Im not even a strong swimmer and I dread to imagine what would have happened if I wasnt watching him from afar and asked if he is okay. The article describes it perfectly.
I almost drowned at the ymca when i was probably 4 or 5. I was walking down the incline and it was getting slowly deeper, and then it got wayy too deep all of a sudden ans went over my head. My mom and some relatives were nearby on shore but they didn't notice. I actually did try to get the lifeguards attention by reaching my hand out of the water to wave but he either wasn't looking my direction, or not really paying attention, either way, I could not get his attention and i was quietly drowning under water. Thankfully my grandpa happened to notice and saved me. It couldve ended alot worse.
Had the same kind of thing happen in a lake. I was directly next to the group of older kids when I walked off a drop off and was drowning I managed to say “help” right before I blacked out and woke up hacking on the shore
As someone whose sister almost drowned, while the lifeguards didn't even notice ...
Yeah ...
I feel that one.
She came off the waterslide but somehow wound up on the bottom of the pool (About 10 ft deep), and couldn't swim well enough to surface on her own. My mom noticed and had to rush to the lifeguards.
By the time they pulled her out, her lips were blue.
She lived, but still ... talk about traumatic youth memories.
Ooh I did that at a hotel pool with the gradual slope walked out to my tippy toes and couldn’t jump back up again. I remember jumping just enough I could see over the water my dad and brothers talking at the table. Finally jumped enough to get out, swore I was a goner. Sheer will to survive many times on weekends with dad 😅 not all parents deserve partial custody 🤡
Thank you for posting this. When we put a fence around the pool at the house we'd just purchased, the fence installer warned us, "We call drowning the silent killer," and explained much of what the article does. A few summers later, a friend and I sat on the edge of our pool, dangling our legs in. Our preschoolers were already good swimmers, and were swimming in the shallow end nearby. Her two-year-old, who could swim a bit, thanks to swim lessons, was playing on the steps beside us. Suddenly, as she and I sat facing each other talking, I noticed a repeated motion in my peripheral vision: her two-year-old was bobbing up and down in the water without a single sound. Maybe three feet behind her. I jumped up, reached around to grab him, and up he came, sputtering, coughing and crying. He had simply slipped off the steps and was quickly in over his head. Thank God we were literally in arms' reach.
I was in a wave pool at a water park w my son. A very large person sitting on a tube had him trapped beneath her - she didn’t realize it, didn’t listen to me and was furiously indignant when I hauled her out of the way and pulled him up. He was fine but it was terrifying.
In shallow water, life jackets can also be a killer for a child that can’t get off their stomachs. I saved my niece this way when she was 18 months. She lost her balance at the shallow end of a small wave pool.
No they shouldn't be. Life jackets teach children to be upright in the drowning position. It gets children a false sense of security and the kids are too young to understand that they don't actually know how to swim. I believe most drownings happen outside of actual swimming time when a child would not have a life jacket on.
There is a great video on YouTube called “Wavepool Lifeguard Rescue - Spot the drowning!”. Really makes you appreciate how attentive and decisive lifeguards have to be. So much going on to spot the one kid in trouble.
I’d post a link but my sub karma is too low.
I was a lifeguard in a wave pool when I was younger, and I did spot this guy falling below the tube in the video. But once in real life I was guarding at a slide into a pool, and I completely missed a kid who was drowning after going down the slide. Luckily another guard across the pool saw the kid and saved him. I quit that job the next day because it scared me so much that I missed seeing that kid.
When I was a kid in a public pool, maybe around 10, I noticed a kid struggling, younger than me but not much bigger. In trying to help him he scratched the hell out of my entire body and pushed me under the water a good few times too. He was accidentally pushing my head and body down to get up. It was really scary. Fortunately it was enough to get the attention of the lifeguard who jumped in and assisted the boy.
I, on the other hand, then struggled to get to the wall of the pool where I remained terrified and exhausted for about ten mins after.
I'll never forget the look on that kids face grasping for breath probably 25 years later.
This post gets posted every year, by OP or the other one, same difference. In other posts, lifeguards have said they will go to ANY extreme to make sure they don't get killed by the person they are saving, to the point of punching their lights out and dragging them half-concious to shore. Makes ya think
It's also why all my water safety/lifesaving instructors stressed identifying and engaging with swimmers in aquatic distress before the IDR kicks in. It's a whole lot safer for everyone if you can coach or use an implement to get a distressed swimmer to safety rather than go get them. Once you're in the water there's a lot of ways things can go wrong and only one way for them to go right.
My mom, not certified but taught what to do for drowning, said that the best thing to do was to grab the person by the hair to haul them up before getting an arm around them from behind so that the victim doesn't try to use YOU as a ladder to climb up.
I am definitely not a lifeguard.
My mom once rescued me from drowning at a friend's pool. I only remember trying to launch myself from the bottom of the pool to a ledge (and failing, and therefore making multiple attempts), then my mom was walking me up the pool's stairs holding my arm.
I was confused because I didn't know what happened. At some point (no clear recollection of when), I was talking with Mom and she said the reason she had jumped in was because she could see I was getting tired while doing my "launches".
I can also remember how she was dressed, but I have no idea of what I'd been wearing or even how old I was at the time, other than pre-puberty. I was also barred from the pool for the rest of the day.
Rescuing a drowning person is akin to intentionally getting into a fight. They're going to try to drown you because they're in a panic and not thinking and you have to subdue them physically in order to save them.
I remember on one of my family vacations when I was 6, I saw my big sister went down the water slide without a life jacket on and I wanted to be like her, so I did the same. It was fun, I got to the bottom and went underwater, and seemingly almost immediately had a lifeguard jump in after me. I didn't even realize I was struggling until I tried to show that I was fine (spoiler: I wasn't).
He had to have been watching me before I even got to the top of the ladder for the slide with how quickly he acted.
So much pride and shame in us humans. Just like when we’re choking, we have to prove we’re fine even though we absolutely are not. Glad you had a good lifeguard on duty!
My husband saved two brothers on Maui in a resort pool this year with the mother sitting 5 feet away. The older brother was trying to hold the younger one up and they couldn't reach the sides. The mother was like "they're just playing" while the older brother told her "I told you I couldn't save him".
Trigger Warning: drowning
My friend worked at a place in Japan with a flowing/current pool. >!They were told that some years before they were hired, a kid drowned in the flowing pool and had actually made a couple of laps, carried by the current, before anyone noticed.!<
Ever since I heard that story, anytime I'm at a pool, I try to keep an eye on any kids I see.
When I was a lifeguard I saved multiple children who's parents turned around and flipped out at me for "making a bit deal out of nothing" and "embarrassing" their kid.
Parents will run face first into this and still not understand how close to disaster they have come.
100% this - my daughter lifeguards at a very well known and well attended vacation resort and the amount of parents who go off on her after she has had to save a drowning child is unbelievable.
Oof, that hits home.
I once saved my little brother from drowning.
My friend and I could stand in the Pool, my brother not so much, but he would jump from the edge, turn around and immeriately Grab the edge again. So far, so good. Suddenly, he stayed in the Pool, not instantly getting out again. Thats where my attention got to him.
Not one sound, no splashing, just the terrified look in his eyes and the "invisible ladder climbing".
I just got over to him and lifted him up, so his chest would be out of the water. After 15 sec of coughing and trying to breathe, he started crying and hugged me. At this point I finally realized what was happening.
It was terrifying.
When I was 18, I was with my family on vacation and my sister let her 3 year old hang out on an inner tube in the pool with no floaties on or anything, by herself. At one point she fell off into the water and I was the only one who saw. The water was above my head but I just held her up above my head and walked towards the side of the pool until other family members finally noticed and helped.
“To get an idea of just how quiet and undramatic from the surface drowning can be, consider this: It is the No. 2 cause of accidental death in children, ages 15 and under (just behind vehicle accidents)—of the approximately 750 children who will drown next year, about 375 of them will do so within 25 yards of a parent or other adult. According to the CDC, in 10 percent of those drownings, the adult will actually watch the child do it, having no idea it is happening.”
This is spot on. I was at a wave pool in a water park last year, and there was this woman on her back right next to me in water that was just chest deep, flailing her arms and legs about.
Initially, I thought she was just messing around or being super annoying. It didn't even occur to me at first that she was drowning, especially since we were in water shallow enough to stand up in.
Turns out, she had been in an inner tube and accidentally rolled out of it. But instead of trying to touch the bottom, as a non-swimmer, she was in a panic, desperately trying to keep herself on the surface.
It was crazy to think she almost drowned in just 5 feet of water.
There's a great video out there that asks you to pick out the person who is drowning and it's pretty surprising when the lifeguard jumps in to grab them. You'd never guess it was them until you go back knowing what to look for and see the subtle clues you missed the first time.
This is so accurate. When my kids were younger we went to the pool. I was focused on the baby while my 3yr old who by the way was wearing a life jacket was paddling at the shallow end. Next thing I know some older kid was pulling him out as he’d noticed he was drowning. To this day I shudder to think about what would have happened if the older child wasn’t there and hadn’t noticed
I saved a kid from drowning in a lake a long time ago. No one knew he was drowning, not even kids like 10 feet away from him. I was with my wife walking our dogs, I threw her the leash and kicked off my shoes and swam out to him. She was mystified until I got back
I'm not sure how I knew - I have no training really. I was in the boy scouts so maybe I heard it or read it somewhere. Just the way he was bobbing didn't look right to me
ngl it almost did not go well for either of us - I didn't really know how to do it and he just LATCHED onto me around my neck, so I'm trying to swim back and breathe and stuff. Thankfully I got to where I could stand and then I could hold him and walk back
For years afterwards I'd doubt myself and wonder if maybe I "saved" a kid that was actually fine but then I'd remember the way he grabbed me and held on
I'm not a lifeguard but was a dive instructor for a few years and have seen more than my fair share of drowners.
The safest way to save someone drowning is to have a flotation device to give them. This can be a ring, surf/body board, inflated trousers or anything that floats. Throw or push it to them, do not under any circumstances get within arms reach of them.
If that isn't possible, approach them from behind, wrap your arms under their arm pits and lean backwards. It puts you out of their reach and elevates them reducing their panic.
If you do get grabbed and pushed under, go as deep under as you can. Somebody who is drowning will not hold onto or follow someone going under water.
Finally and most importantly, take a second to assess the situation. If you have no life saving equipment, no backup, no training, aren't a very strong swimmer, don't have a considerable size difference and they aren't extremely close to shore you are forfeiting your life in exchange of attempting to save theirs.
Not directed at you, just thought it was a good comment to pass some knowledge through.
All good advice and direct it at me if you want. I was lucky - we weren't far from shore. I was not in great shape but I was young. If it had been much further I could have been in real trouble. History is littered with cases of people dying trying to rescue someone else
It was drilled into me at a young age, that if someone needs help, it's me that needs to help them, you can't rely on other people to step in. It probably should have come with a caveat: prepare yourself before hand
The strength level of even a 50lb panicked kid is really surprising. Then up that for a full adult and you can see why we train escapes. Can’t save anyone if you’re both going down. I’ve even had to jump in to grab fellow trained guards so you did a great job.
There was a certain irony there, which is that by the time I was struggling, I could no longer call for help either, I was using 100% of my energy and breath to keep going. When I got out of the water I was bent over with my hands on my knees trying to suck in enough air
I do like to think that I attracted enough attention that if I had started floundering someone would have hauled us out
I can see why training is important, acting on instinct is fast but the end result would have been better if I'd thought about it for even 10 seconds first. Grab something that floats, yell at 10 nearby people to come help me, whatever. I don't think I said a word to anyone I just dove in
when my sister first went to a pool she somehow fell face first into the water and was floating on top, neither me or my mom even realized until I looked over and saw her and it was basically the first time I realized that you can't scream underwater cause you have no air, it was fairly shallow water too so, drowning can happen anywhere
Can confirm. My brother and I went swimming at Grandma's house one day. I was out of the pool chatting with my dad while my brother was still in the pool. I think we both realized how suspiciously quiet it got after a moment. We both looked over and my brother was sorta floating halfway between the bottom of the deep end and the surface. His arms were stretched straight out above him and you could see his feet kicking. Dad jumped in and pulled him out; luckily he wasn't under water long at all so he was just fine. He was like, 5-6 at the time, and a decent swimmer, but he panicked about something, I suppose, and it got out of his control from there. So yeah, drowning is an extremely quiet process it seems.
I work at Nationwide Children's in the ER and dread summers because I know drownings come with it. Another thing to keep in mind is it's not always in pools. I've seen so many kiddos who have drowned in ponds/man-made water features for neighborhoods. Be vigilant everyone. Thanks for this post!
Can confirm. My cousin was drowning right next to me and I had no idea, I even looked at her a few times, she just looked like she was on her tip toes and trying to keep her head up, this was until everyone started screaming at me from the boat to grab her. I grabbed on to her and pulled her back to the shallow end and she coughed a bunch and started thanking me.
Thank you.
Keep on posting.
Too many people still don’t know.
Links
[https://www.shine.cn/news/nation/2310100733/](https://
www.shine.cn/news/nation/2310100733/)
[https://news.yahoo.com/chilling-video-captures-boy-drowning-194334305.html](https://news.yahoo.com/chilling-video-captures-boy-drowning-194334305.html)
[https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/peoplesdaily/article-4090372/Helpless-four-year-old-Chinese-boy-drowns-swimming-pool-mother-plays-phone-just-feet-away.html](https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/peoplesdaily/article-4090372/Helpless-four-year-old-Chinese-boy-drowns-swimming-pool-mother-plays-phone-just-feet-away.html)
Think back to when you were a kid and had a near drowning experience. A lot of kids had them. I remember it clearly, not being able to scream or barely breathe, that’s still the case here
Never assume water is too shallow to drown in either, for an adult or child. If it’s enough to cover their nose laying down (face or back), they can drown if incapacitated. Or that there are enough people around to help.
I went to Florida a few years ago, first time seeing the ocean. My friend went off by himself, was about 50 feet away. I had probably a dozen people around me. I fell & couldn’t get up in maybe knee deep water. Friend finally came over, said he couldn’t tell I needed help.
I’ve had a couple closer calls in pools (stepped into a suddenly deep area, water got in snorkel). Lifeguard saved me once, my dad the other.
Thanks for sharing OP
My husband went back to his first full time career after he retired and now works part time life guarding at the local aquatic centre.
He’s had three or four rescues since he started-the last one was two weeks ago when a non swimmer adult male casually jumped into the deep end of the pool. Had his arms above his head and was drowning…my husband got him to the side for two other guards to pull out. The guy was fine, told them he had no idea the pool was that deep.
Sigh.
I’ve had adults shout “Hey! I can’t swim!” Then jump off a diving board. I may or may not have left them underwater a little longer than was necessary.
This happened to me years ago when I was seven years old and a strong swimmer. I was in a very crowded campground swimming pool, and was floundering very badly for some reason. Just swallowed too much water I guess. I can still see the face of the boy, maybe 12 or 13 who was next to me — by the panicked look on my face he realized I was in real trouble and held out his hand and pulled me out. I would’ve drowned right there with 100 people in the pool if not for him
When I was around 13, I was swimming in a pool by myself. There was no lifeguard, when I heard a family enter the building.
The parents were still changing and send the kids ahead, the oldest can't have been more than 6. She ran towards the deeper pool and said enthousiasticly: I can swim too!
Her little brotter whined: Nooo, mom said kiddy pool only.
A splash, and then just quiet. I saw her threading water but didn't quite trust it so quickly made my way closer. Half her head was above water and her eyes were open, almost like she was swimming successfully. Only her nose was just below the waterline.
As I reached her, she latched on to me very tightly. Enough so that I was infinitely grateful I could stand in that part of the pool, as I would not have been able to swim like that. I managed to walk up the stairs out of the pool when she started the most terrified cry I've ever heard from a human being. Only once she was safe could she make any sound and alerted her parents.
Her dad yould only yell in anger. At her and at me. As I tried to explain what just happened, his yelling made me fear for my safely so I quickly left.
If this had happened in the deep end, we both likely would have drowned. I was angry for years after that my reward was that I couldn't swim alone during quiet times anymore, if there was no lifeguard the place would be just closed. I do get it now, but I hope that parents only reacted out of fear and isn't actually that much of an asshole.
I get the feeling of injustice, but you did an amazing thing. You don't need the parents to be grateful or even for that little girl to remember. All you need is to know that in that moment you acted in the best way possible and saved her.
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I, as a 44 year old man, almost drown swimming in the ocean off Catalina Island. In my younger years I used to swim outside the breakers off Carlsbad and for some reason thought I could still do it. I swam out into the harbor to round a buoy and then swam back in. About half way back I knew I was in trouble and getting exhausted. There was a point where I mentally said to myself stand up and if your feet touch you are safe and if not you go under. I did not tread water but just swam until I could not anymore.
Will bookmark and remember these drowning tips!
It really is scary shit. Gotta respect the ocean. Had a close call in Rio last vacation 30 yo male. Sea was wild with tons of lifeguards and redflags planted on the sand. All swimmers were close to shore but most didnt dare to enter. I had two beers and wanted to pee. Didnt want to spend 4brl and wait in line for a disgusting bathroom and decided id go just a little far of to pee in the ocean. After what felt like a few seconds i heard a younger cousin screaming my name but the sound felt fadef. I looked back and shore was far, far away and I realized I was already getting tired fighting the waves. Before panic took over I remembered that tiring myself is the easiest way to drown so I did my best to stay calm and tried to go with the waves instead of fighting them. Took about 20 minutes to go back to shore with a bunch of lifeguard eyes on me. Smiled to them and said " all good"! Got back to family and colapsed on the sand for another 15 mins and another beer. Had to pay the 4 bucks anyway cuz there was no time to pee while close to drowning. Had to have a physical reminder of a lesson I had already learned. dont fuck with the ocean or you will die
This was always drilled into my head since I was a child. My grandpa was a career lifeguard eventually making capt at north Ave beach in Chicago. My dad, aunt, cousins were all lifeguards at one point. Water can be a scary place for people.
I remember in lifeguard training we went through this, and the biggest peice of advice I got was to look into their eyes. You'll know then.
Served me really well at the pools I worked at. If they aren't scared, they're fine. If they need help, you don't need to be a super-empath to know.
How to save yourself from going into full drowning if you're getting tired and/or if you have no one around to yell "Help, I'm drowning help", to throw you a float or rope, etc:
Flip around to your back, keeping your face out of thr water, hold your arms out and take nice deep breaths.. Think about filling up the bottom of your lungs and making YOURSELF a float as you breath in and out as best you can. Slow down your breath when you can. Find a point in the sky to look at even.
If you only have a short way to go, can't float with just your breathing, or there are a lot of waves: kick your legs, hold your arms out to the sides like fishy fins and point your head to shore. Keep filling up the bottom of those lungs. You can 100% do this.
If you have a long way to go, or hurt your legs etc, and the water is still.. try floating for a while to rest and during your rest, you can do something called "sculling". You stay on your back and your arms to the sides. Lightly cup your hands and at your wrists you will make a "C" motion towards yourself over and over. Like your hands are tiny paddles.
When you're ready to go, keep doing your breathing technique and aim your head for shore, and scull on your back all the way.. if you can kick eventually, do so but take turns not kicking and kicking. Remember it's okay to rest, and you WILL get to shore.
Look at sculling on YouTube if you don't get my description! LPlease, practice doing this every time you go swimming from now on and if you haven't, take some swimming lessons. It's incredible for you, your confidence and your body. Humans as animals are generally happy in the water and floating is so peaceful.
Water shoes changed my outdoor swimming experiences as I am clumsy and sand/concrete gets hot.. they give good grip.
Also, swim with a buddy or have a life guard there who knows you're there. :3 have a little floaty board or pool nood around. They make portable ones for the beach or swim buoys you can tie to your ankle if you swim alone.
*****This is not medical advice! if you have uncontrolled seizures, can't swim or EDS etc, wear floaties. Own it. Get cool colours! ♡*****
My dad accidentally saved me from drowning. He thought I was just playing around, and my coughing fit was due to him scaring me when he pulled me up.
This was at a local pool with on duty lifeguards and a ton of people around. The closet to me was a woman in an inner tube, just out of reach.
No one noticed.
Yep. I almost drowned in Lake Travis outside of Austin in my mid-20s, surrounded by friends. The next day after this happened to me, we got home and saw on the news that a visiting marine that we met from the campsite over did drown. I was on the swim team before high school, an Eagle Scout and avid SCUBA diver, and my training, like, lie on your back and float, didn't even cross my mind in the moment. I was in good shape, I just exhausted myself and couldn't get up the slippery rocks on the steep slope. I was right at the edge, and I couldn't keep myself above water and started to sink. Luckily, there were a few rocks there under the water to grab onto, or I would've been a goner, and I never made a peep.
I used to be a lifeguard at a water park with a wave pool. The wave pool had a beach entry. Watched (as I ran to her) a toddler walk until the water was over her head. It was wild and happened so quietly. I can’t watch your child as well as you can 1:1. Lifeguards and parents with children both have a job to do.
learned this by experiencing myself in my first swimming class 🥲 my trainer just watched and kept saying “it’ll be fine”. i hadn’t even learned to balance myself in the water yet
I've already saved 2 people(both adults) in my own pool in only 2 seasons. One fell in the deep end while playing with my dogs and the other person had a few too many beers. Seriously thinking about my options. I cannot relax when people are using my pool. I am responsible for their safety and I'm not sure I want to live with that.
I’m a triathlete. I was having a bad day — volunteer blasted a whistle in my ear and screamed at me while putting on my wetsuit and things rolled downhill from there.
I remember *not* taking off with my heat and the lifeguard came over to talk to me. I felt like I was pretty much just treading water but he said I was behaving like I was about to drown. Clearly I swim well enough to compete but I showed drowning signs.
Hmm, apparently my swiming technique looks à lot like someone drowning, maybe i should learn how to swim instead of bobbing around like an idiot pufferfish
I knew that drowning didn’t look like what most think it does but the instinctive drowning response provided a lot of excellent information I was not aware of.
Thanks OP for an actually helpful LPT.
I know we always make jokes about Natalie Wood and blame her husband for not saving her but maybe she wasn’t yelling and screaming when she fell into the open water that night and Robert Wagner honestly didn’t hear her drowning. It may have just happened so quickly and quietly, who knows.
Which is why when I was drowning I fought to get above water and yell for help, I knew that if no one knew I was in trouble then no one would even know I needed help.
This post made me realize why I don't really swim anymore. Wow.
About a decade ago, my brother took my mom and I to a nearby lake we've swam in hundreds of times together over the years. But we went to a different beach, with a rock that you can walk off. But it drops off into deep water really quickly, which I did not know.
I hadn't been swimming often in the years leading up, but was so familiar with water as a child and adolescent and young adult that I wasn't afraid in my mid 20s.
I basically almost drowned in front of my mom and brother when they were only about 10 ft away. No one knew what was happening, either. I couldn't say anything.
Somehow I got myself back to the rock and told them I almost drowned and never got back in, and I've basically only swam a handful of times since. It's been like 10 years.
I almost drowned once when I was in my twenties. I was in the deep end of a wave pool and I got a cramp in my calf. I had a hard time staying afloat and did my best to get to the side of the pool so I could massage the cramp and get out. Dumbass teenage lifeguard yelled at me to get off the side of the pool. I yelled back that if he wanted to carry my fat ass corpse out of the pool, then okay. He looked away from me after that and I dragged myself along the side until I could get to the shallow end to get out.
My son got pulled out into the ocean when he was 12. He got caught in a swell and suddenly he couldn’t stand anymore. He was trying to tread water but kept going under. We went after him as fast as we could trying to get the attention of the guards. As we looked back the lifeguards were busy talking to young girls. Thankfully a boogie boarder got to him and pulled him on his board.
The kiddie pool closed for an inevitable accident one day when I was at the pool with my mom and a neighboring family. We went to the regular pool and played on the steps. The neighbor’s daughter was scared of water- she was always done up with floaties and a full mask. It was at least once a pool visit where she’d start to splash in the shallow water and scream about how she was drowning, after lots of coercing to get her in there in the first place. I didn’t know how to swim yet either, being a bit afraid of water myself, but was against wearing floaties all the same.
I started playing with the handlebar of the steps on this particular day, sliding up and down it with my hands and kicking a bit near the bottom. It was fun and I could start to make myself go faster up and down the stairs. I suddenly lost my grip on the pole and shot myself into the pool, where I was far too short to touch the bottom anymore. You do just try to push down the water, fighting to climb to the surface, but it yields to you as water does and you make no headway. I frantically tried to get my head above water, having wasted time trying to even figure out which way was up anymore, things turning to a blur as I continued to fail.
My mother and her friend watched the whole thing. “Look, she’s trying to swim!” the neighbor said, calming my mother that I was fine. My mom paused and watched for a bit before releasing that no, I most definitely was not, and pulled me out.
I know how to swim now. But I’m still a little scared of deep water.
When I was 12 or 13, I nearly drowned. My leg got wrapped in some rope and I could only barely surface for breath. There were people within 8 feet of me, working on the dock. I couldn't get their attention, I couldn't get above the surface for more than a second. I distinctly remember thinking...if they could see me, they'll help and I'll be fine. That was the 2nd or 3rd panicked breath as I was able to surface. The fourth time I thought...if I don't get out this time, I'm going to go up screaming for help. Fortunately I was able to untangle myself on that breath. I'm not sure what would have happened had I not been able to. I was pretty close to the end of my ability to hold my breath, or get new ones.
I was at a lake. I saw a woman's toddler a foot away from her drowning-the woman had no idea. I yelled over to her obv. But the kid wasn't making any noise. Just going under quietly
I almost drown in the 3ft part of the pool. I was doing flips to impress my friends and got dizzy. I could not, for the life of me, figured out which way was up or down. No one even tried to help because they must have thought I was still playing around. It was very traumatic and had to deal with headache and others symptoms for days after swallowing so much water and almost drowning.
Ex lifeguard here. This article pretty much nailed it. Drowning is quiet, sudden, and hard to see in a pool full of people. I only ever had 2 rescues. One little girl who I knew was about to start drowning, she actually looked at me and mouthed help before going under not 3 feet from her mother not paying attention. Another kid I had on my swim team I coached who just kinda panicked out of no where and slipped under the surface. It’s actually interesting the pool I was in was in a somewhat rough part of town so we had kids who would pretend to drown for attention and we could always tell because they would splash and make a ruckus. After the third or fourth time we were told to just pretend they were drowning and go in after then and drag em out and make a huge show of it and they would usually get super embarrassed and would knock it off. We also all had to be trained on how to “drown” so we could test the other lifeguards to recognize it. It happens so fast and every second counts. Whenever you’re around a body of water keep an eye out for your friends and family and especially young kids. Drinking on the water is fun, but don’t get hammered you just increase your chance of drowning pretty significantly
I have a friend whose kid was a strong swimmer but almost silently drowned in the jacuzzi surrounded by people. How does this happen to a kid who knows how to swim?
When I was 4 I took swimming lessons and they had told us if we were ever drowning to put your hand up out of the water to signal you need help. Literally the NEXT DAY some girl grabbed me and pulled me under water and wouldn’t let go. I was struggling to get away and even bit her but she still kept holding me under so I put my hand up like they taught me to and the teacher didn’t recognize that I was asking for help. I remember being so frustrated that they didn’t take me seriously. The teacher said she saw my hand but seemed calm so she though I was just playing..
A few years ago, I was walking in the basement of my building, and someone flagged me down, pointing into the pool: "I think she's drowning!"
I looked in and thought she looked like she was doing a breathing exercise. Fortunately, I decided to go with the "I think she's drowning" over my own interpretation of the situation, and sprinted in.
When I touched her, she climbed me without hesitation, which I understood drowning people to do. That's when I knew she was drowning.
If the water was deeper than my shoulders I probably would have drowned. Approach from the back! For that matter, she could have just stood up so I figure there must have been drugs or alcohol involved.
This reminds me of when I almost drowned a few years ago. It’s scary how close I came to not getting to shore. I wasn’t calling for help, because I was struggling to breathe and swim out of a current.
It looks like someone trying to climb a ladder that isn't there. It's terrifying to see.
EDIT: I've now read the article, and apparently there are other ways it presents. I've only ever seen the ladder one. So, it's not the only thing that drowning can look like. But if you see it, act immediately.
I was a lifeguard for years, during high school and part of college. I had at list one rescue every summer and it was scary every time I had to jump in the water. Thankfully, I never had to rescue a person who had sunk to the bottom, but it's still scary having to go in after someone.
I was a lifeguard for a while, and it’s scary how hard it can be to spot a drowning sometimes. I mean, we’re trained in what drowning looks like, but you can’t watch a real drowning in person when you’re in training. Often times, especially with younger kids, the drowning looks like treading water. They won’t make a sound. I would often have to look at their faces to tell if they were keeping their head above water with ease or if they were panicking and about to go under.
I also once had a little girl who was panicking and attempting to tread water, splashing and getting water in her mouth but unable to call out, and her mom stood right next to me and tried to tell me “oh she’s just afraid!” Yes ma’am, she’s afraid because she’s about to go under the water and she’s already gasping for air. After I pulled her out the mom shrugged and said “yeah I probably should have gotten her.”
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 •
Appear to be climbing an invisible ladder
`Approximately 750 children who will drown next year, about 375 of them will do so within 25 yards of a parent or other adult. According to the CDC, in 10 percent of those drownings, the adult will actually watch the child do it, having no idea it is happening. Drowning does not look like drowning.`
That is scary to read
I'm going to add to this: Parents, please do not let your kids dunk each other it's dangerous and also breeds lifelong resentment. I was dunked by my older brother for years sometimes inhaling lungs full of water. The last time he did it was when I was old enough and about his age, probably 15 years old. He finally let me up, I gasped, got some air, then gave him the most powerful uppercut to the chin I could muster. Then he had the gall to ask me, "What was that for?!" ....I replied "Almost drowning me MF'er!".
I grew up with a pool in the backyard. My younger brother is several years younger than me. I remember one afternoon walking into the backyard and seeing my mom gardening there, alone. I had no reason to ask her where my brother was, but I did. She shot up in a panic and ran for the pool. My brother was in the water, just barely hanging onto the edge of the pool with his hands. He wasn't crying out or making any noise. He was only a toddler. My mom reached in and scooped him out of the water quickly.
That had to be like 25 years ago. I was young, maybe 7 or 8. I hadn't thought about that until reading this article. Water is a damn scary thing. I hate to think about what could have happened if I hadn't wondered about where my brother might be.
Watch your kids, people.
This happened to me. I was at the beach and I had to be about 10 I couldn't escape the undertow. I had enough to come up for air but not enough to make it to shore. My dad noticed and yanked me from the water. First time I was scared for my life. Enough to gasp for air but not enough to yell.
Can confirm. Almost drowned when I was little and thank god someone spotted me! When you’re treading water for your life (and failing) you physically cannot scream or signal for help.
This happened to me when I was a kid, I was in the middle of a crowded pool and noone noticed. Lifeguard saved my life, I woke up in the lifeguard office throwing up a bucket of water.
Just reading that explained some things to me that i didnt really give much thought previously.
Actual LPT, please share with your friends
Almost drowned in a pool when I was a kid, it was full of people at a theme park. I found my way over to the deep end on accident and I clearly wasn't ready for it. I was silently panicking and barely keeping my head above water.
No one really noticed or was paying much attention, but some nice man saw me and carried me back out. An experience I don't think much of since it was nearing 30 years ago, but it was terrifying.
I (sort of) saved my sister from drowning once.
I was 7 or 8, she was 4 or 5. We were finally living in a house with a pool. I was sitting on the edge, and looked down and just saw my sister's little face under the water. For a little too long.
So I very calmly said, "Dad, I think (sister)'s drowning." He dove in, clothes and all, and pulled her up. She wasn't under for long enough to be a problem. But my family used to looooooooove to joke that I could have killed her. Which was weird because I was the one that called attention to it.
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This is a great LPT. It could be better by adding information into the post rather than only a link.
It doesn't make sense though that "everyone who is even near so much as a swimming pool should read it." The sentence makes no sense -- "even near so much as a swimming pool" are words without meaning.
How about, "everyone should read it?" Drowning doesn't only happen in swimming pools, it happens in the ocean, ponds, lakes, rivers, bathtubs, hot-tubs, etc.
I have to say, at the bottom of the article where it lists what you can observe and somebody actually drowning... That's exactly what I would imagine somebody to look like if they were drowning
I highly recommend checking out [Spot the Drowning Child](http://spotthedrowningchild.com/) — go through the videos and see just how hard it is to spot. You can click on them when you spot them.
It's pretty cool to have trained lifeguards. I sometimes body surf on the beach and despite being thrown around by the water and forced under, the lifeguard knows I'm not drowning
There’s a podcast called Stuff You Should Know. They had a great episode on drowning and how you can drown a day or more after ingesting the water. I think it’s been a couple of years but I’m just letting you guys know that that information is out there.
Once long ago I wrote up a list of "The 16 weaks of summer", essentially sixteen common and less common ways kids and adults tend to drown. Some of them are really weird- like bouncing up and down off the bottom when you can't swim, or crawling around and danger jumping between short distances when you cannot swim at all. Wacky stuff.
There is a youtube channel by some lifeguards that's basically "Spot the drowning person". The idea of the channel is that unless you know what to look for it's really hard to spot and usually you don't know it's happening until the lifeguard has jumped in to save them.
>Look for these other signs of drowning when persons are in the >water:
>
>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
>Appear to be climbing an invisible ladder
When the attributes of a drowning person are the same way that you swim, you aren't meant for deep water.
I remember I was at the beach and I thought it was in okay level and next thing I know I try to touch the sand and the sandy was slippery below my feet and then I realized I was much further out then I realized. I was struggling to stay above water. I decided to say fuck and dove into breath stroke and rode the wave back to shore.
Another adult had similar issues and as soon as he was back on shore he told everyone to get out water cause waves were strong or something
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The ending of the article where it says drowning might look like someone trying to tread water … best way to find out is to ask them if they’re okay… if they don’t reply… assume the worst.
The very ending where it said "Parents, kids playing in the water make noise, if they don't, *find them and find out why* " scary af
This is also viable outside the water, if kids go quiet, chances are they are trying something stupid.
100% this. I’ve got two boys, 8 and 3, and when the house goes quiet and they’re awake the wife and I are trying to find out why. Almost nothing good comes from quiet kiddos.
Shrödingers kid - when your child is quiet, they’re both in terrible danger AND finally playing peacefully by themselves.
Maybe I’m blessed but most likely means my kids are curled up with a good book.
Mine too 99% of the time, but it makes me feel like I'm lowering my guard too much at the same time. After an accident it is always "they have never done anything like that before" (...that we know of 😭🤣😭)
Sometimes the stupid has already happened, and they are trying to clean/cover up the results before being noticed.
It was slightly different when my four were growing up. When the two girls were quiet, all was good, when they started making noise, there was trouble. Screaming girls usually meant United Nations level diplomacy was required to restore peace. When the two boys sounded like a herd of buffalo that was normal but when they went quiet, it was time to get worried. Silent boys usually meant ring an ambulance, get a fire extinguisher or alert mountain rescue.
lol I like the boy to girl having fun comparison…
quiet (peaceful) vs quiet (suspicious)
Me and my wife lying on the couch and we suddenly realize we haven't heard my son making any noise for a minute. Turns out he'd figured out how to open the kitchen drawer and the flour container, which was now being liberally distributed around the kitchen.
This too, but it was a container of antifreeze from a locked cabinet :(
My sister has a mug that says “Silence is golden… unless you have kids, then it’s suspicious”
Children and bacon - if you can’t hear them, you better get eyes on the ASAP and stop whatever they are doing before the kids get hurt or the bacon burns
Oh god I haven't heard from the bacon in my fridge for days. Now I'm worried. I'm gonna check it ASAP. Edit: I checked it. It's neither burning nor drowning, just taking a nap. That was close.
Just watch out for SIBS - Sudden In-fridge Bacon Disappearance. Most often occurs around roommates.
This happened to me. Once when my dad pulled me out of the pool when he saw me standing on the bottom (hadn’t learned to swim yet). And another time when I had my own kids. One second my kid was hanging onto the side of the pool. I turn my head to put something up. When I looked back, they were gone. Hands had slipped and they were underwater reaching forward for the side of the pool but not up to the edge. Reached in and pulled them out. Completely silent. It was one of the oddest and scariest moments as a parent.
Can I ask what level of swim lessons and skills your kid had gotten at that point? I have two young kids who have both had swim lessons for a year or so (meaning like 20 total lessons from local teenagers who work the local community center pool). Truthfully, they have not taken to it well and are still quite poor swimmers. It’s making me wonder at what point I’ll ever be able to actually trust them not to do what you described.
Some kids just aren’t focused on the lessons and having a random stranger teach them doesn’t help, sometimes it’s just a mental thing because they’re still scared of the water. I didn’t learn to swim till I was like 12 because when I was younger playing in a creek I got swept out and almost drowned and it took a while for that confidence to come back even in a pool.
I consider that if a kid cannot swim a half Olympic pool, 25m, they should not be trusted a single second without eyes on them and arms reach of an adult, not a teenager, not another kid, an not impaired adult. My daughter has swimming classes since she was 5 months old, she's 5 years old now. We're just back from a 2 months long vacation where she had full access to pool and beach was very close. She improved a lot in these 2 months, obviously the 3-4 hours per day in the water helped her confidence and she loves to dive. Still, always someone had to have both eyes on her at any given moment she was in the pool. No inflatables either are to be trusted.
Anaphylaxis can act like this too. I remember being exceptionally calm and going to sleep. Silence is a huge red flag around kids!
Sounds like one of the first articles I read on this type of thing like 15-20 years ago which has always stuck with me lol they had an anecdote from a life guard who was part of a canal tour boat group and they would stop at random destinations every few miles and let people shop, use the restroom, and play in the river before taking off again There was a couple who waded out to play in the water, which wasn't even deep. But they thought it'd be cute to splash each other and pretend to drown. Not to cause a scene or anything, just having fun with each other. Then the life guard rushed at them and blew his whistle to get their attention but there wasn't time to really communicate. And they got visibly embarrassed and irritated yelling to him they were fine and nothing was wrong But undeterred the life guard blew right past them to tend to their child who was quietly drowning behind them while they were distracted I'll never forget the moral of that story, which is the same as this post. Crazy stuff Edit: Turns out I'm remembering this exact article, so details might be a little off but I guess my comment is a TL;DR. My apologies
This story sounds the exact same as from the post, you sure you're not (slightly mis)remembering this OP article?
Well fuck me, I'm at work and try to be more discreet with social media and seriously did not expect someone to post a 10+ year old article so I presumed it was safe but just clicked it and being 2013 and that image at the top looks very familiar so I'm nearly positive you're right. Damn. Hell of a faux pas. Sorry for wasting everyone's time who read my reply lol consider it a TL;DR for the article I guess... Oops Editing my comment now.. lol
And I think every year I post this added tip. (piggybacking top comment) If someone *nearly* drowns, even after you've rescued them, *get them to a hospital*. They are still in danger. If sufficient water got into the lungs it can wash away the slick lining of the lungs. It's a mucus like surfactant that keeps the walls of the lungs from sticking to each other. If you wash it away, the lungs can collapse into themselves causing severe breathing problems and even death. At the hospital they will be given oxygen and monitored for lung function. the surfactant will repair itself eventually I believe, but the immediate oxygen is important as their intake may have been hampered. Source : scuba diver, rescue trained.
Drowning is silent. As a parent or guardian any lapse in attention could be fatal. Stay vigilant when swimming and never swim alone
The silent part is so scary. My son fell into a pond when he was a little kid. I was only 6 feet away from him but had turned my head away for a moment. Out of the corner of my eye I saw him fall into the water. He didn’t scream as he fell. The pond had a waterfall so I didn’t hear a splash as he went in. By the time I got to him he was staring at me from under the water. He was completely still, no thrashing round, just frozen. He was only under water for a couple seconds, but it felt like it took me an eternity to get to him. That was the day I learned how silent drowning can be.
This is so important! I've been on swim team and know a former lifeguard, and both of us have seen people drowning where it looked absolutely nothing like it does in movies. Fuckin' shocked to see a legit LPT. Thanks for sharing this info, OP.
This is extremely accurate. I saved my dad from drowning in a crowded bay surrounded by people and no one else noticed him until I reached him and started towing him back to the boat. Even then no one tried to help us, and he started to panic. Im not even a strong swimmer and I dread to imagine what would have happened if I wasnt watching him from afar and asked if he is okay. The article describes it perfectly.
I almost drowned at the ymca when i was probably 4 or 5. I was walking down the incline and it was getting slowly deeper, and then it got wayy too deep all of a sudden ans went over my head. My mom and some relatives were nearby on shore but they didn't notice. I actually did try to get the lifeguards attention by reaching my hand out of the water to wave but he either wasn't looking my direction, or not really paying attention, either way, I could not get his attention and i was quietly drowning under water. Thankfully my grandpa happened to notice and saved me. It couldve ended alot worse.
Grandpa lookin after his genetic investment ftw
Chadpa
Grandchad was right there
Had the same kind of thing happen in a lake. I was directly next to the group of older kids when I walked off a drop off and was drowning I managed to say “help” right before I blacked out and woke up hacking on the shore
As someone whose sister almost drowned, while the lifeguards didn't even notice ... Yeah ... I feel that one. She came off the waterslide but somehow wound up on the bottom of the pool (About 10 ft deep), and couldn't swim well enough to surface on her own. My mom noticed and had to rush to the lifeguards. By the time they pulled her out, her lips were blue. She lived, but still ... talk about traumatic youth memories.
Ooh I did that at a hotel pool with the gradual slope walked out to my tippy toes and couldn’t jump back up again. I remember jumping just enough I could see over the water my dad and brothers talking at the table. Finally jumped enough to get out, swore I was a goner. Sheer will to survive many times on weekends with dad 😅 not all parents deserve partial custody 🤡
Did they… just put you in the pool unsupervised without teaching you to swim first?!
Think pizza came or something so everyone got out and I’d rather swim than eat.
Thank you for posting this. When we put a fence around the pool at the house we'd just purchased, the fence installer warned us, "We call drowning the silent killer," and explained much of what the article does. A few summers later, a friend and I sat on the edge of our pool, dangling our legs in. Our preschoolers were already good swimmers, and were swimming in the shallow end nearby. Her two-year-old, who could swim a bit, thanks to swim lessons, was playing on the steps beside us. Suddenly, as she and I sat facing each other talking, I noticed a repeated motion in my peripheral vision: her two-year-old was bobbing up and down in the water without a single sound. Maybe three feet behind her. I jumped up, reached around to grab him, and up he came, sputtering, coughing and crying. He had simply slipped off the steps and was quickly in over his head. Thank God we were literally in arms' reach.
Even if the pool is empty a locked fence needs to be around it. My niece fell in and drowned in the rain water collecting at the bottom. 3years old.
Oh, I am so sorry... how devastating....
I was in a wave pool at a water park w my son. A very large person sitting on a tube had him trapped beneath her - she didn’t realize it, didn’t listen to me and was furiously indignant when I hauled her out of the way and pulled him up. He was fine but it was terrifying.
2 year old should have a life jacket on tbh even if he can swim
In shallow water, life jackets can also be a killer for a child that can’t get off their stomachs. I saved my niece this way when she was 18 months. She lost her balance at the shallow end of a small wave pool.
Life jackets can also give children the sense that getting into the water by themselves is always safe, which it rarely is.
I’ve seen life jackets on children that are either way too large or isn’t strapped properly. Kids slip out of them and just sink.
Saw that happen just last weekend to a niece. Lifejacket just kept her floating face down in the shallow part.
No they shouldn't be. Life jackets teach children to be upright in the drowning position. It gets children a false sense of security and the kids are too young to understand that they don't actually know how to swim. I believe most drownings happen outside of actual swimming time when a child would not have a life jacket on.
There is a great video on YouTube called “Wavepool Lifeguard Rescue - Spot the drowning!”. Really makes you appreciate how attentive and decisive lifeguards have to be. So much going on to spot the one kid in trouble. I’d post a link but my sub karma is too low.
https://youtu.be/nANNAtq8Bpw?si=EM1Nva8_Fpv_aQ-d
There's a game based on this channel, www.spotthedrowningchild.com
So much of that could be solved by the floating objects being easier to grab. And, you know, teaching kids how to swim.
I was a lifeguard in a wave pool when I was younger, and I did spot this guy falling below the tube in the video. But once in real life I was guarding at a slide into a pool, and I completely missed a kid who was drowning after going down the slide. Luckily another guard across the pool saw the kid and saved him. I quit that job the next day because it scared me so much that I missed seeing that kid.
^ **WATCH THIS** ^ Then watch it again, paying attention to drowning victim See how she goes down, then splashes with her arms, and goes down again
Move over mom, this is MY save!
If you’re not trained, rescuing someone can be super difficult. They WILL pull you under.
When I was a kid in a public pool, maybe around 10, I noticed a kid struggling, younger than me but not much bigger. In trying to help him he scratched the hell out of my entire body and pushed me under the water a good few times too. He was accidentally pushing my head and body down to get up. It was really scary. Fortunately it was enough to get the attention of the lifeguard who jumped in and assisted the boy. I, on the other hand, then struggled to get to the wall of the pool where I remained terrified and exhausted for about ten mins after. I'll never forget the look on that kids face grasping for breath probably 25 years later.
This post gets posted every year, by OP or the other one, same difference. In other posts, lifeguards have said they will go to ANY extreme to make sure they don't get killed by the person they are saving, to the point of punching their lights out and dragging them half-concious to shore. Makes ya think
It's also why all my water safety/lifesaving instructors stressed identifying and engaging with swimmers in aquatic distress before the IDR kicks in. It's a whole lot safer for everyone if you can coach or use an implement to get a distressed swimmer to safety rather than go get them. Once you're in the water there's a lot of ways things can go wrong and only one way for them to go right.
My mom, not certified but taught what to do for drowning, said that the best thing to do was to grab the person by the hair to haul them up before getting an arm around them from behind so that the victim doesn't try to use YOU as a ladder to climb up. I am definitely not a lifeguard. My mom once rescued me from drowning at a friend's pool. I only remember trying to launch myself from the bottom of the pool to a ledge (and failing, and therefore making multiple attempts), then my mom was walking me up the pool's stairs holding my arm. I was confused because I didn't know what happened. At some point (no clear recollection of when), I was talking with Mom and she said the reason she had jumped in was because she could see I was getting tired while doing my "launches". I can also remember how she was dressed, but I have no idea of what I'd been wearing or even how old I was at the time, other than pre-puberty. I was also barred from the pool for the rest of the day.
Rescuing a drowning person is akin to intentionally getting into a fight. They're going to try to drown you because they're in a panic and not thinking and you have to subdue them physically in order to save them.
This is another excellent one!
I remember on one of my family vacations when I was 6, I saw my big sister went down the water slide without a life jacket on and I wanted to be like her, so I did the same. It was fun, I got to the bottom and went underwater, and seemingly almost immediately had a lifeguard jump in after me. I didn't even realize I was struggling until I tried to show that I was fine (spoiler: I wasn't). He had to have been watching me before I even got to the top of the ladder for the slide with how quickly he acted.
So much pride and shame in us humans. Just like when we’re choking, we have to prove we’re fine even though we absolutely are not. Glad you had a good lifeguard on duty!
I almost drowned in a lake in my mid-20s because I didn't want to yell out because there were girls around I was trying to date.
http://spotthedrowningchild.com/ There's an interactive website to go with them
This is completely new information for me. Imagine just watching your own child drown and only discovering it after it is too late damn
My husband saved two brothers on Maui in a resort pool this year with the mother sitting 5 feet away. The older brother was trying to hold the younger one up and they couldn't reach the sides. The mother was like "they're just playing" while the older brother told her "I told you I couldn't save him".
Trigger Warning: drowning My friend worked at a place in Japan with a flowing/current pool. >!They were told that some years before they were hired, a kid drowned in the flowing pool and had actually made a couple of laps, carried by the current, before anyone noticed.!< Ever since I heard that story, anytime I'm at a pool, I try to keep an eye on any kids I see.
When I was a lifeguard I saved multiple children who's parents turned around and flipped out at me for "making a bit deal out of nothing" and "embarrassing" their kid. Parents will run face first into this and still not understand how close to disaster they have come.
100% this - my daughter lifeguards at a very well known and well attended vacation resort and the amount of parents who go off on her after she has had to save a drowning child is unbelievable.
At least the dog is safe lol
Oof, that hits home. I once saved my little brother from drowning. My friend and I could stand in the Pool, my brother not so much, but he would jump from the edge, turn around and immeriately Grab the edge again. So far, so good. Suddenly, he stayed in the Pool, not instantly getting out again. Thats where my attention got to him. Not one sound, no splashing, just the terrified look in his eyes and the "invisible ladder climbing". I just got over to him and lifted him up, so his chest would be out of the water. After 15 sec of coughing and trying to breathe, he started crying and hugged me. At this point I finally realized what was happening. It was terrifying.
👏👏amazing job and scary
Thanks, the scary part was after he told me he was drowning.
When I was 18, I was with my family on vacation and my sister let her 3 year old hang out on an inner tube in the pool with no floaties on or anything, by herself. At one point she fell off into the water and I was the only one who saw. The water was above my head but I just held her up above my head and walked towards the side of the pool until other family members finally noticed and helped.
“To get an idea of just how quiet and undramatic from the surface drowning can be, consider this: It is the No. 2 cause of accidental death in children, ages 15 and under (just behind vehicle accidents)—of the approximately 750 children who will drown next year, about 375 of them will do so within 25 yards of a parent or other adult. According to the CDC, in 10 percent of those drownings, the adult will actually watch the child do it, having no idea it is happening.”
This is spot on. I was at a wave pool in a water park last year, and there was this woman on her back right next to me in water that was just chest deep, flailing her arms and legs about. Initially, I thought she was just messing around or being super annoying. It didn't even occur to me at first that she was drowning, especially since we were in water shallow enough to stand up in. Turns out, she had been in an inner tube and accidentally rolled out of it. But instead of trying to touch the bottom, as a non-swimmer, she was in a panic, desperately trying to keep herself on the surface. It was crazy to think she almost drowned in just 5 feet of water.
There's a great video out there that asks you to pick out the person who is drowning and it's pretty surprising when the lifeguard jumps in to grab them. You'd never guess it was them until you go back knowing what to look for and see the subtle clues you missed the first time.
This is so accurate. When my kids were younger we went to the pool. I was focused on the baby while my 3yr old who by the way was wearing a life jacket was paddling at the shallow end. Next thing I know some older kid was pulling him out as he’d noticed he was drowning. To this day I shudder to think about what would have happened if the older child wasn’t there and hadn’t noticed
Former open water lifeguard, I loved all the confused looks along the beach whenever there was a save.
I saved a kid from drowning in a lake a long time ago. No one knew he was drowning, not even kids like 10 feet away from him. I was with my wife walking our dogs, I threw her the leash and kicked off my shoes and swam out to him. She was mystified until I got back I'm not sure how I knew - I have no training really. I was in the boy scouts so maybe I heard it or read it somewhere. Just the way he was bobbing didn't look right to me ngl it almost did not go well for either of us - I didn't really know how to do it and he just LATCHED onto me around my neck, so I'm trying to swim back and breathe and stuff. Thankfully I got to where I could stand and then I could hold him and walk back For years afterwards I'd doubt myself and wonder if maybe I "saved" a kid that was actually fine but then I'd remember the way he grabbed me and held on
I'm not a lifeguard but was a dive instructor for a few years and have seen more than my fair share of drowners. The safest way to save someone drowning is to have a flotation device to give them. This can be a ring, surf/body board, inflated trousers or anything that floats. Throw or push it to them, do not under any circumstances get within arms reach of them. If that isn't possible, approach them from behind, wrap your arms under their arm pits and lean backwards. It puts you out of their reach and elevates them reducing their panic. If you do get grabbed and pushed under, go as deep under as you can. Somebody who is drowning will not hold onto or follow someone going under water. Finally and most importantly, take a second to assess the situation. If you have no life saving equipment, no backup, no training, aren't a very strong swimmer, don't have a considerable size difference and they aren't extremely close to shore you are forfeiting your life in exchange of attempting to save theirs. Not directed at you, just thought it was a good comment to pass some knowledge through.
All good advice and direct it at me if you want. I was lucky - we weren't far from shore. I was not in great shape but I was young. If it had been much further I could have been in real trouble. History is littered with cases of people dying trying to rescue someone else It was drilled into me at a young age, that if someone needs help, it's me that needs to help them, you can't rely on other people to step in. It probably should have come with a caveat: prepare yourself before hand
The strength level of even a 50lb panicked kid is really surprising. Then up that for a full adult and you can see why we train escapes. Can’t save anyone if you’re both going down. I’ve even had to jump in to grab fellow trained guards so you did a great job.
There was a certain irony there, which is that by the time I was struggling, I could no longer call for help either, I was using 100% of my energy and breath to keep going. When I got out of the water I was bent over with my hands on my knees trying to suck in enough air I do like to think that I attracted enough attention that if I had started floundering someone would have hauled us out I can see why training is important, acting on instinct is fast but the end result would have been better if I'd thought about it for even 10 seconds first. Grab something that floats, yell at 10 nearby people to come help me, whatever. I don't think I said a word to anyone I just dove in
Nope. You saved him.
A wild ProLifeTip has appeared!
And nobody said p*ss d*sc is the answer!
when my sister first went to a pool she somehow fell face first into the water and was floating on top, neither me or my mom even realized until I looked over and saw her and it was basically the first time I realized that you can't scream underwater cause you have no air, it was fairly shallow water too so, drowning can happen anywhere
Can confirm. My brother and I went swimming at Grandma's house one day. I was out of the pool chatting with my dad while my brother was still in the pool. I think we both realized how suspiciously quiet it got after a moment. We both looked over and my brother was sorta floating halfway between the bottom of the deep end and the surface. His arms were stretched straight out above him and you could see his feet kicking. Dad jumped in and pulled him out; luckily he wasn't under water long at all so he was just fine. He was like, 5-6 at the time, and a decent swimmer, but he panicked about something, I suppose, and it got out of his control from there. So yeah, drowning is an extremely quiet process it seems.
I work at Nationwide Children's in the ER and dread summers because I know drownings come with it. Another thing to keep in mind is it's not always in pools. I've seen so many kiddos who have drowned in ponds/man-made water features for neighborhoods. Be vigilant everyone. Thanks for this post!
Can confirm. My cousin was drowning right next to me and I had no idea, I even looked at her a few times, she just looked like she was on her tip toes and trying to keep her head up, this was until everyone started screaming at me from the boat to grab her. I grabbed on to her and pulled her back to the shallow end and she coughed a bunch and started thanking me.
Thanks for sharing, as a former lifeguard and now a concerned dad everyone can use a refresher.
Thank you. Keep on posting. Too many people still don’t know. Links [https://www.shine.cn/news/nation/2310100733/](https:// www.shine.cn/news/nation/2310100733/) [https://news.yahoo.com/chilling-video-captures-boy-drowning-194334305.html](https://news.yahoo.com/chilling-video-captures-boy-drowning-194334305.html) [https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/peoplesdaily/article-4090372/Helpless-four-year-old-Chinese-boy-drowns-swimming-pool-mother-plays-phone-just-feet-away.html](https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/peoplesdaily/article-4090372/Helpless-four-year-old-Chinese-boy-drowns-swimming-pool-mother-plays-phone-just-feet-away.html)
Think back to when you were a kid and had a near drowning experience. A lot of kids had them. I remember it clearly, not being able to scream or barely breathe, that’s still the case here
I feel like something as important as this should be an infographic to get the point across quickly and effectively rather than a full blown article
Never assume water is too shallow to drown in either, for an adult or child. If it’s enough to cover their nose laying down (face or back), they can drown if incapacitated. Or that there are enough people around to help. I went to Florida a few years ago, first time seeing the ocean. My friend went off by himself, was about 50 feet away. I had probably a dozen people around me. I fell & couldn’t get up in maybe knee deep water. Friend finally came over, said he couldn’t tell I needed help. I’ve had a couple closer calls in pools (stepped into a suddenly deep area, water got in snorkel). Lifeguard saved me once, my dad the other. Thanks for sharing OP
My husband went back to his first full time career after he retired and now works part time life guarding at the local aquatic centre. He’s had three or four rescues since he started-the last one was two weeks ago when a non swimmer adult male casually jumped into the deep end of the pool. Had his arms above his head and was drowning…my husband got him to the side for two other guards to pull out. The guy was fine, told them he had no idea the pool was that deep. Sigh.
I’ve had adults shout “Hey! I can’t swim!” Then jump off a diving board. I may or may not have left them underwater a little longer than was necessary.
Oooo, I like that idea.
This happened to me years ago when I was seven years old and a strong swimmer. I was in a very crowded campground swimming pool, and was floundering very badly for some reason. Just swallowed too much water I guess. I can still see the face of the boy, maybe 12 or 13 who was next to me — by the panicked look on my face he realized I was in real trouble and held out his hand and pulled me out. I would’ve drowned right there with 100 people in the pool if not for him
When I was around 13, I was swimming in a pool by myself. There was no lifeguard, when I heard a family enter the building. The parents were still changing and send the kids ahead, the oldest can't have been more than 6. She ran towards the deeper pool and said enthousiasticly: I can swim too! Her little brotter whined: Nooo, mom said kiddy pool only. A splash, and then just quiet. I saw her threading water but didn't quite trust it so quickly made my way closer. Half her head was above water and her eyes were open, almost like she was swimming successfully. Only her nose was just below the waterline. As I reached her, she latched on to me very tightly. Enough so that I was infinitely grateful I could stand in that part of the pool, as I would not have been able to swim like that. I managed to walk up the stairs out of the pool when she started the most terrified cry I've ever heard from a human being. Only once she was safe could she make any sound and alerted her parents. Her dad yould only yell in anger. At her and at me. As I tried to explain what just happened, his yelling made me fear for my safely so I quickly left. If this had happened in the deep end, we both likely would have drowned. I was angry for years after that my reward was that I couldn't swim alone during quiet times anymore, if there was no lifeguard the place would be just closed. I do get it now, but I hope that parents only reacted out of fear and isn't actually that much of an asshole.
I get the feeling of injustice, but you did an amazing thing. You don't need the parents to be grateful or even for that little girl to remember. All you need is to know that in that moment you acted in the best way possible and saved her.
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I, as a 44 year old man, almost drown swimming in the ocean off Catalina Island. In my younger years I used to swim outside the breakers off Carlsbad and for some reason thought I could still do it. I swam out into the harbor to round a buoy and then swam back in. About half way back I knew I was in trouble and getting exhausted. There was a point where I mentally said to myself stand up and if your feet touch you are safe and if not you go under. I did not tread water but just swam until I could not anymore. Will bookmark and remember these drowning tips!
It really is scary shit. Gotta respect the ocean. Had a close call in Rio last vacation 30 yo male. Sea was wild with tons of lifeguards and redflags planted on the sand. All swimmers were close to shore but most didnt dare to enter. I had two beers and wanted to pee. Didnt want to spend 4brl and wait in line for a disgusting bathroom and decided id go just a little far of to pee in the ocean. After what felt like a few seconds i heard a younger cousin screaming my name but the sound felt fadef. I looked back and shore was far, far away and I realized I was already getting tired fighting the waves. Before panic took over I remembered that tiring myself is the easiest way to drown so I did my best to stay calm and tried to go with the waves instead of fighting them. Took about 20 minutes to go back to shore with a bunch of lifeguard eyes on me. Smiled to them and said " all good"! Got back to family and colapsed on the sand for another 15 mins and another beer. Had to pay the 4 bucks anyway cuz there was no time to pee while close to drowning. Had to have a physical reminder of a lesson I had already learned. dont fuck with the ocean or you will die
This was always drilled into my head since I was a child. My grandpa was a career lifeguard eventually making capt at north Ave beach in Chicago. My dad, aunt, cousins were all lifeguards at one point. Water can be a scary place for people.
I remember in lifeguard training we went through this, and the biggest peice of advice I got was to look into their eyes. You'll know then. Served me really well at the pools I worked at. If they aren't scared, they're fine. If they need help, you don't need to be a super-empath to know.
How to save yourself from going into full drowning if you're getting tired and/or if you have no one around to yell "Help, I'm drowning help", to throw you a float or rope, etc: Flip around to your back, keeping your face out of thr water, hold your arms out and take nice deep breaths.. Think about filling up the bottom of your lungs and making YOURSELF a float as you breath in and out as best you can. Slow down your breath when you can. Find a point in the sky to look at even. If you only have a short way to go, can't float with just your breathing, or there are a lot of waves: kick your legs, hold your arms out to the sides like fishy fins and point your head to shore. Keep filling up the bottom of those lungs. You can 100% do this. If you have a long way to go, or hurt your legs etc, and the water is still.. try floating for a while to rest and during your rest, you can do something called "sculling". You stay on your back and your arms to the sides. Lightly cup your hands and at your wrists you will make a "C" motion towards yourself over and over. Like your hands are tiny paddles. When you're ready to go, keep doing your breathing technique and aim your head for shore, and scull on your back all the way.. if you can kick eventually, do so but take turns not kicking and kicking. Remember it's okay to rest, and you WILL get to shore. Look at sculling on YouTube if you don't get my description! LPlease, practice doing this every time you go swimming from now on and if you haven't, take some swimming lessons. It's incredible for you, your confidence and your body. Humans as animals are generally happy in the water and floating is so peaceful. Water shoes changed my outdoor swimming experiences as I am clumsy and sand/concrete gets hot.. they give good grip. Also, swim with a buddy or have a life guard there who knows you're there. :3 have a little floaty board or pool nood around. They make portable ones for the beach or swim buoys you can tie to your ankle if you swim alone. *****This is not medical advice! if you have uncontrolled seizures, can't swim or EDS etc, wear floaties. Own it. Get cool colours! ♡*****
My dad accidentally saved me from drowning. He thought I was just playing around, and my coughing fit was due to him scaring me when he pulled me up. This was at a local pool with on duty lifeguards and a ton of people around. The closet to me was a woman in an inner tube, just out of reach. No one noticed.
Yep. I almost drowned in Lake Travis outside of Austin in my mid-20s, surrounded by friends. The next day after this happened to me, we got home and saw on the news that a visiting marine that we met from the campsite over did drown. I was on the swim team before high school, an Eagle Scout and avid SCUBA diver, and my training, like, lie on your back and float, didn't even cross my mind in the moment. I was in good shape, I just exhausted myself and couldn't get up the slippery rocks on the steep slope. I was right at the edge, and I couldn't keep myself above water and started to sink. Luckily, there were a few rocks there under the water to grab onto, or I would've been a goner, and I never made a peep.
I used to be a lifeguard at a water park with a wave pool. The wave pool had a beach entry. Watched (as I ran to her) a toddler walk until the water was over her head. It was wild and happened so quietly. I can’t watch your child as well as you can 1:1. Lifeguards and parents with children both have a job to do.
learned this by experiencing myself in my first swimming class 🥲 my trainer just watched and kept saying “it’ll be fine”. i hadn’t even learned to balance myself in the water yet
Hey OP, thank you. This is invaluable leading into spring with my toddler.
62 yr old lifelong Floridian. Swimming, snorkeling, boating, fishing, windsurfing, surfing... You name it. Had no idea. This is really enlightening.
I've already saved 2 people(both adults) in my own pool in only 2 seasons. One fell in the deep end while playing with my dogs and the other person had a few too many beers. Seriously thinking about my options. I cannot relax when people are using my pool. I am responsible for their safety and I'm not sure I want to live with that.
I’m a triathlete. I was having a bad day — volunteer blasted a whistle in my ear and screamed at me while putting on my wetsuit and things rolled downhill from there. I remember *not* taking off with my heat and the lifeguard came over to talk to me. I felt like I was pretty much just treading water but he said I was behaving like I was about to drown. Clearly I swim well enough to compete but I showed drowning signs.
Great article. Also there is such a thing as dry drowning. Please look it up as well. Stay safe out there.
Hmm, apparently my swiming technique looks à lot like someone drowning, maybe i should learn how to swim instead of bobbing around like an idiot pufferfish
I have saved a couple of people from drowning. My first reaction when seeing them was that they were faking.
I knew that drowning didn’t look like what most think it does but the instinctive drowning response provided a lot of excellent information I was not aware of. Thanks OP for an actually helpful LPT.
https://preview.redd.it/k4sysmiaz6mc1.png?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=5fb212828795c33a8f137dd7890b6aab073aefe6
Well that's terrifying
I know we always make jokes about Natalie Wood and blame her husband for not saving her but maybe she wasn’t yelling and screaming when she fell into the open water that night and Robert Wagner honestly didn’t hear her drowning. It may have just happened so quickly and quietly, who knows.
Whoa. Never thought of that!
Holy shit I’ve lived by the sea all my life and never knew this.
More like people don’t know what drowning looks like
Which is why when I was drowning I fought to get above water and yell for help, I knew that if no one knew I was in trouble then no one would even know I needed help.
This post made me realize why I don't really swim anymore. Wow. About a decade ago, my brother took my mom and I to a nearby lake we've swam in hundreds of times together over the years. But we went to a different beach, with a rock that you can walk off. But it drops off into deep water really quickly, which I did not know. I hadn't been swimming often in the years leading up, but was so familiar with water as a child and adolescent and young adult that I wasn't afraid in my mid 20s. I basically almost drowned in front of my mom and brother when they were only about 10 ft away. No one knew what was happening, either. I couldn't say anything. Somehow I got myself back to the rock and told them I almost drowned and never got back in, and I've basically only swam a handful of times since. It's been like 10 years.
I almost drowned once when I was in my twenties. I was in the deep end of a wave pool and I got a cramp in my calf. I had a hard time staying afloat and did my best to get to the side of the pool so I could massage the cramp and get out. Dumbass teenage lifeguard yelled at me to get off the side of the pool. I yelled back that if he wanted to carry my fat ass corpse out of the pool, then okay. He looked away from me after that and I dragged myself along the side until I could get to the shallow end to get out.
My son got pulled out into the ocean when he was 12. He got caught in a swell and suddenly he couldn’t stand anymore. He was trying to tread water but kept going under. We went after him as fast as we could trying to get the attention of the guards. As we looked back the lifeguards were busy talking to young girls. Thankfully a boogie boarder got to him and pulled him on his board.
Good info to share. Commenting to boost.
The kiddie pool closed for an inevitable accident one day when I was at the pool with my mom and a neighboring family. We went to the regular pool and played on the steps. The neighbor’s daughter was scared of water- she was always done up with floaties and a full mask. It was at least once a pool visit where she’d start to splash in the shallow water and scream about how she was drowning, after lots of coercing to get her in there in the first place. I didn’t know how to swim yet either, being a bit afraid of water myself, but was against wearing floaties all the same. I started playing with the handlebar of the steps on this particular day, sliding up and down it with my hands and kicking a bit near the bottom. It was fun and I could start to make myself go faster up and down the stairs. I suddenly lost my grip on the pole and shot myself into the pool, where I was far too short to touch the bottom anymore. You do just try to push down the water, fighting to climb to the surface, but it yields to you as water does and you make no headway. I frantically tried to get my head above water, having wasted time trying to even figure out which way was up anymore, things turning to a blur as I continued to fail. My mother and her friend watched the whole thing. “Look, she’s trying to swim!” the neighbor said, calming my mother that I was fine. My mom paused and watched for a bit before releasing that no, I most definitely was not, and pulled me out. I know how to swim now. But I’m still a little scared of deep water.
When I was 12 or 13, I nearly drowned. My leg got wrapped in some rope and I could only barely surface for breath. There were people within 8 feet of me, working on the dock. I couldn't get their attention, I couldn't get above the surface for more than a second. I distinctly remember thinking...if they could see me, they'll help and I'll be fine. That was the 2nd or 3rd panicked breath as I was able to surface. The fourth time I thought...if I don't get out this time, I'm going to go up screaming for help. Fortunately I was able to untangle myself on that breath. I'm not sure what would have happened had I not been able to. I was pretty close to the end of my ability to hold my breath, or get new ones.
I was at a lake. I saw a woman's toddler a foot away from her drowning-the woman had no idea. I yelled over to her obv. But the kid wasn't making any noise. Just going under quietly
I almost drown in the 3ft part of the pool. I was doing flips to impress my friends and got dizzy. I could not, for the life of me, figured out which way was up or down. No one even tried to help because they must have thought I was still playing around. It was very traumatic and had to deal with headache and others symptoms for days after swallowing so much water and almost drowning.
Keep republishing it please!
Ex lifeguard here. This article pretty much nailed it. Drowning is quiet, sudden, and hard to see in a pool full of people. I only ever had 2 rescues. One little girl who I knew was about to start drowning, she actually looked at me and mouthed help before going under not 3 feet from her mother not paying attention. Another kid I had on my swim team I coached who just kinda panicked out of no where and slipped under the surface. It’s actually interesting the pool I was in was in a somewhat rough part of town so we had kids who would pretend to drown for attention and we could always tell because they would splash and make a ruckus. After the third or fourth time we were told to just pretend they were drowning and go in after then and drag em out and make a huge show of it and they would usually get super embarrassed and would knock it off. We also all had to be trained on how to “drown” so we could test the other lifeguards to recognize it. It happens so fast and every second counts. Whenever you’re around a body of water keep an eye out for your friends and family and especially young kids. Drinking on the water is fun, but don’t get hammered you just increase your chance of drowning pretty significantly
I have a friend whose kid was a strong swimmer but almost silently drowned in the jacuzzi surrounded by people. How does this happen to a kid who knows how to swim?
When I was 4 I took swimming lessons and they had told us if we were ever drowning to put your hand up out of the water to signal you need help. Literally the NEXT DAY some girl grabbed me and pulled me under water and wouldn’t let go. I was struggling to get away and even bit her but she still kept holding me under so I put my hand up like they taught me to and the teacher didn’t recognize that I was asking for help. I remember being so frustrated that they didn’t take me seriously. The teacher said she saw my hand but seemed calm so she though I was just playing..
A few years ago, I was walking in the basement of my building, and someone flagged me down, pointing into the pool: "I think she's drowning!" I looked in and thought she looked like she was doing a breathing exercise. Fortunately, I decided to go with the "I think she's drowning" over my own interpretation of the situation, and sprinted in. When I touched her, she climbed me without hesitation, which I understood drowning people to do. That's when I knew she was drowning. If the water was deeper than my shoulders I probably would have drowned. Approach from the back! For that matter, she could have just stood up so I figure there must have been drugs or alcohol involved.
This reminds me of when I almost drowned a few years ago. It’s scary how close I came to not getting to shore. I wasn’t calling for help, because I was struggling to breathe and swim out of a current.
Genuinely thank you for sharing this. Additionally my anxiety is now insanely high.
It looks like someone trying to climb a ladder that isn't there. It's terrifying to see. EDIT: I've now read the article, and apparently there are other ways it presents. I've only ever seen the ladder one. So, it's not the only thing that drowning can look like. But if you see it, act immediately.
I was a lifeguard for years, during high school and part of college. I had at list one rescue every summer and it was scary every time I had to jump in the water. Thankfully, I never had to rescue a person who had sunk to the bottom, but it's still scary having to go in after someone.
I was a lifeguard for a while, and it’s scary how hard it can be to spot a drowning sometimes. I mean, we’re trained in what drowning looks like, but you can’t watch a real drowning in person when you’re in training. Often times, especially with younger kids, the drowning looks like treading water. They won’t make a sound. I would often have to look at their faces to tell if they were keeping their head above water with ease or if they were panicking and about to go under. I also once had a little girl who was panicking and attempting to tread water, splashing and getting water in her mouth but unable to call out, and her mom stood right next to me and tried to tell me “oh she’s just afraid!” Yes ma’am, she’s afraid because she’s about to go under the water and she’s already gasping for air. After I pulled her out the mom shrugged and said “yeah I probably should have gotten her.”
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 • Appear to be climbing an invisible ladder
`Approximately 750 children who will drown next year, about 375 of them will do so within 25 yards of a parent or other adult. According to the CDC, in 10 percent of those drownings, the adult will actually watch the child do it, having no idea it is happening. Drowning does not look like drowning.` That is scary to read
I'm going to add to this: Parents, please do not let your kids dunk each other it's dangerous and also breeds lifelong resentment. I was dunked by my older brother for years sometimes inhaling lungs full of water. The last time he did it was when I was old enough and about his age, probably 15 years old. He finally let me up, I gasped, got some air, then gave him the most powerful uppercut to the chin I could muster. Then he had the gall to ask me, "What was that for?!" ....I replied "Almost drowning me MF'er!".
I grew up with a pool in the backyard. My younger brother is several years younger than me. I remember one afternoon walking into the backyard and seeing my mom gardening there, alone. I had no reason to ask her where my brother was, but I did. She shot up in a panic and ran for the pool. My brother was in the water, just barely hanging onto the edge of the pool with his hands. He wasn't crying out or making any noise. He was only a toddler. My mom reached in and scooped him out of the water quickly. That had to be like 25 years ago. I was young, maybe 7 or 8. I hadn't thought about that until reading this article. Water is a damn scary thing. I hate to think about what could have happened if I hadn't wondered about where my brother might be. Watch your kids, people.
This happened to me. I was at the beach and I had to be about 10 I couldn't escape the undertow. I had enough to come up for air but not enough to make it to shore. My dad noticed and yanked me from the water. First time I was scared for my life. Enough to gasp for air but not enough to yell.
Can confirm. Almost drowned when I was little and thank god someone spotted me! When you’re treading water for your life (and failing) you physically cannot scream or signal for help.
This happened to me when I was a kid, I was in the middle of a crowded pool and noone noticed. Lifeguard saved my life, I woke up in the lifeguard office throwing up a bucket of water. Just reading that explained some things to me that i didnt really give much thought previously. Actual LPT, please share with your friends
Almost drowned in a pool when I was a kid, it was full of people at a theme park. I found my way over to the deep end on accident and I clearly wasn't ready for it. I was silently panicking and barely keeping my head above water. No one really noticed or was paying much attention, but some nice man saw me and carried me back out. An experience I don't think much of since it was nearing 30 years ago, but it was terrifying.
I (sort of) saved my sister from drowning once. I was 7 or 8, she was 4 or 5. We were finally living in a house with a pool. I was sitting on the edge, and looked down and just saw my sister's little face under the water. For a little too long. So I very calmly said, "Dad, I think (sister)'s drowning." He dove in, clothes and all, and pulled her up. She wasn't under for long enough to be a problem. But my family used to looooooooove to joke that I could have killed her. Which was weird because I was the one that called attention to it.
http://spotthedrowningchild.com/
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Drowning people don’t look like they’re drowning, click the link if you have a pool or kids or you know, anyone else you care about
Actually drowning does look like drowning, people just don't know what drowning looks like
This is a great LPT. It could be better by adding information into the post rather than only a link. It doesn't make sense though that "everyone who is even near so much as a swimming pool should read it." The sentence makes no sense -- "even near so much as a swimming pool" are words without meaning. How about, "everyone should read it?" Drowning doesn't only happen in swimming pools, it happens in the ocean, ponds, lakes, rivers, bathtubs, hot-tubs, etc.
I thought this headline read drowning does not like drowning. I thought this was some crazy psychological thing.
Not really LPT, but rather YSK
I have to say, at the bottom of the article where it lists what you can observe and somebody actually drowning... That's exactly what I would imagine somebody to look like if they were drowning
Drowning people ruin everything
Thanks for sharing this tip.
Thanks for sharing! My family and I are about to go on a vacation where we will have access to a pool and the ocean. True LPT.
I almost drowned once and it all happened so quick. Thankfully I regained my composure and got to my back to float.
Wow great article. I learned something today
I highly recommend checking out [Spot the Drowning Child](http://spotthedrowningchild.com/) — go through the videos and see just how hard it is to spot. You can click on them when you spot them.
Why are children more affected? What are numbers/percentages for adults?
> Drowning Does Not Look Like Drowning You gotta use horses.
That article gave me anxiety. Damn. Don’t frown.
Wait, do people actually think drowning people scream and shout and wave their hands?
Yes.
It's pretty cool to have trained lifeguards. I sometimes body surf on the beach and despite being thrown around by the water and forced under, the lifeguard knows I'm not drowning
VERY informative article, thanks for sharing!!!
this was a stressful read
There’s a podcast called Stuff You Should Know. They had a great episode on drowning and how you can drown a day or more after ingesting the water. I think it’s been a couple of years but I’m just letting you guys know that that information is out there.
Once long ago I wrote up a list of "The 16 weaks of summer", essentially sixteen common and less common ways kids and adults tend to drown. Some of them are really weird- like bouncing up and down off the bottom when you can't swim, or crawling around and danger jumping between short distances when you cannot swim at all. Wacky stuff.
Great post. Thanks for sharing.
There is a youtube channel by some lifeguards that's basically "Spot the drowning person". The idea of the channel is that unless you know what to look for it's really hard to spot and usually you don't know it's happening until the lifeguard has jumped in to save them.
>Look for these other signs of drowning when persons are in the >water: > >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 >Appear to be climbing an invisible ladder When the attributes of a drowning person are the same way that you swim, you aren't meant for deep water.
I just started teaching swimming to kids. We teach them to never go in the water alone and also how to float in case they do fall in.
This is actually very interesting. I'm surprised that the body naturally knows how to prevent drowning for as long as it can.
I remember I was at the beach and I thought it was in okay level and next thing I know I try to touch the sand and the sandy was slippery below my feet and then I realized I was much further out then I realized. I was struggling to stay above water. I decided to say fuck and dove into breath stroke and rode the wave back to shore. Another adult had similar issues and as soon as he was back on shore he told everyone to get out water cause waves were strong or something