People with children that will be playing in swimming pools need to read this article. Yikes. "The Instinctive Drowning Response so named by Francesco A. Pia, Ph.D., is what people do to avoid actual or perceived suffocation in the water. And it does not look like most people expect. There is very little splashing, no waving, and no yelling or calls for help of any kind. To get an idea of just how quiet and undramatic from the surface drowning can be, consider this: It is the number two cause of accidental death in children, age 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. In ten percent of those drownings, the adult will actually watch them do it, having no idea it is happening (source: CDC). Drowning does not look like drowning Dr. Pia, in an article in the Coast Guards On Scene Magazine, described the instinctive drowning response like this:" http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-.../2749476/posts
Yep, and you can drown in very little water, too. All it takes is the toddler to trip into the kiddy pool while Mom, Dad, or whoever is supervising to be distracted by the phone for a moment before it is too late. They can't lift themselves free of the water easily. Drowning in backyard pools will claim plenty of kids this summer.
I'm sharing this only because I want to illustrate how true this is...maybe my scare/my failure to be diligent will help someone else. I will never erase the nightmarish image I have in my head of my son, not yet 5 years old, under water at the apt. complex community pool where we lived. It makes my stomach sick and my eyes tear up just thinking about my own experience (my son doesn't even remember it). There was a lifeguard on duty. We were down at the shallow end, and I was taking a break in a chair, watching my son play in the water, and to be honest, sneaking in a little reading (DON'T!). It could have been 15 seconds - it could have been a minute. All I know is that when I glanced up to see how he was doing, my heart stopped. He was beneath the water by several inches, his arms were out, and he had a totally scared/panicked look on his face. He wasn't thrashing or flailing (yet - and maybe, according to the article, he never would have), so it must have just happened. Another person had seen him too, because we both jumped in, and of course I grabbed him first. The lifeguard didn't ever realize there was a problem until he saw me and the other person jump in and then heard my son crying when I pulled him out. He was fine, thankfully...just scared. That happened 14 or 15 years ago, and it still makes me shudder... I've always thought of myself as a responsible parent, but I was SO irresponsible that day
Every time I start thinking "a pool would be nice" I read about a child drowining in the family pool. Today on yahoo news two one year old twins were found by the mother drowned in the pool. No pool here.
