DROWNING DOESN’T LOOK LIKE DROWNING.
As we gear up for the summer paddling and swimming season, it is once again time to remind everyone that:
DROWNING DOESN’T LOOK LIKE DROWNING.
It doesn’t look like the way it is portrayed in movies or our imaginations, with lots of splashing and yelling.
It is a quiet death, slipping under the water very still, very softly.
For children, it can happen within 20 seconds.
For adults, it takes between 20 seconds and 60 seconds.
There is a physiological reaction that takes place when you are underwater, and you can’t open your mouth to yell or breathe – your body knows it is under water and won’t let you. And many of your other muscles get frozen also.
So, watch your kids and those around you when you are playing in and around the water.
In the 1980s, the local school held an all-night pool party for the kids and parents of the elementary and middle school.
After several hours of fun and swimming, I decided to make a big splash and cannonball off the diving board. Step, step and a big bounce up – and I got the biggest Charlie-horse in my life.
When I came down into the water, I could not move and was barely floating, unable to tread water, or move my arms, or keep my mouth and nose above water.
Nobody else was paying attention. Not the parents, not the lifeguards, not my kids.
Except one skinny little 8-year-old girl.
Keep in mind, I was an overweight middle-aged man at the time.
So anyway, this little 8-year old girl came dog-paddling over and earnestly asked: “Do you need saving?”
I was able to nod my head, and did so.
She then grabbed me around my neck (a cross-the-chest carry was probably not physically possible due to the difference in sizes). (But who was I to complain?)
And then dog-paddled and pulled me over to the side of the pool and put my hand on to the side of the pool so my mouth and nose were above water, thereby saving my life.
It wouldn’t have been too many seconds later that I would have slipped down to the bottom of the deep end of the pool with nobody else noticing, what with all the partying going on. And if it can happen to me, it can happen to anybody. I’ve taken Red Cross Lifeguard training, and for years maintained my Lifeguard card. At the time, nobody ever mentioned that drowning doesn’t look like drowning.
So keep an eye out for the head that is barely floating above the water, with the mouth and nose underwater – that is the person that is drowning and needs to be saved. And it just takes a couple of seconds.
Take care of yourselves out there. And take care of the people around you.
See you On The Water!
Harmon