A drowning person may be harder to spot than you think. According to Mario Vittone, a former Coast Guard rescue swimmer, drowning usually doesn’t involve someone crying for help. It’s difficult to identify because it’s so quiet.
“I wasn’t surprised at all by this story. Drowning is almost always a deceptively quiet event. The waving, splashing, and yelling that dramatic conditioning (television) prepares us to look for, is rarely seen in real life,” Mario wrote on his blog.
He suggests several signs to look for:
- 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
- Ladder climb, rarely out of the water.
It’s scary to think that someone might drown without anyone noticing, but it just reinforces why we need to be diligent when it comes to water safety.
From Mario Vittone.
{ 10 comments… read them below or add one }
This is a scary post but very important to read. I freely admit that I wouldn't know what it looked like because I've seen so many dramatic tv spots that I would be expecting total panic and wailing. I will remember this post for a long time.
Wow, I didn't know that, I thought if you drown, there'd be loads of splashing and stuff going on. That's interesting….
That's very scary but you're right, I too thought there would be splashing and screams. We won't have to worry about that since noone in my home knows how to swim and will not go near the beaches.
letessha@yahoo.com
Quite interesting.
I've never seen anyone drowning, and I hope I never will. I would probably be too nervous to actually help..and I would hate to make it worse.
I had no idea – a good remind to all of us to be watching out for each other.
welp, this horrified me.
This is a very good article. My daughter had recently began to swim independently in a 6 feet pool. She is either in her class or I always watch her closely. Yesterday she came to me and said: Mom, if your legs and arms are tired and you cannot move them no more and if you feel dizzy and find difficulty in staying afloat, would you be drowning?
I said, yes. She said, well then I was almost drowning the other day!
Oh gosh, this is important info. Thanks for sharing. I never knew that!
Wow! I assume that this is taught to all lifeguards…we may assume that they would know if someone was drowning. Thanks for bringing this to the forefront