Talk:Drowning
From Academic Kids
I am not happy with this: Drowning following car accidents is the second most likely cause of injury and death for children up to 14 years . Males are much more likely to drown than females. The leading causes of death may be very different in different parts of the world (I guess neither drowning nor car accidents play a major role in Mauritania), so specific figures should be quoted. And where does the information about male/female risk come from? Kosebamse 07:14, 12 Apr 2004 (UTC)
- The numbers are based on an american statistic, so you are right, they probably do not apply worldwide. The same statistic also showed that more men drown than women. This, however can quite likely be the same worldwide, as men are more likely to take risks (and hence to fail the odds) than females. I will see if i can find a reference. -- chris_73 07:21, 12 Apr 2004 (UTC)
Thanks for the prompt reply! I have rephrased that sentence a little to be less specific, but references would be fine. By the way, in causes of drowning there seems to be nothing about inability to swim. Do you know if there are any figures about how many people drown because they have not learnt swimming? Kosebamse 07:25, 12 Apr 2004 (UTC)
- Got the reference with "more males", and "high risk below 14": Water-Related Injuries (http://www.cdc.gov/ncipc/factsheets/drown.htm). It has also some info about drowning due to the inability to swim. However, I think (but dont have the exact data yet), most people drown for other reasons (drunk, unconscious, trapped, exhaustion, cold, currents ...). Also, a normal person will naturally float in the water, and can happily breathe with the nose and mouth above the water almost indefinitely. They drown if they panik or get exhausted. I will check . -- chris_73 07:30, 12 Apr 2004 (UTC)
- Couldnt find a reference about how many people drown because they cant swim. Found one ref, but this was misquoting another study, and just attributed all causes to "cannot swim". It seems, one problem is to distinguish the different causes, sort of "Was it the cold water, the waves, being drunk or being a bad swimmer?". There are many statistics about the location, if you need that. BTW thanks for improving the article! -- chris_73 07:48, 12 Apr 2004 (UTC)
"Even after brain death some cells of the body will continue to live, and for example hair may grow."
Myth - see http://www.snopes.com/science/nailgrow.htm (and since the cause of apparent shrinkage is *dehydration* of tissue, unlikely to occur in drowning). --Calair 03:59, 6 Sep 2004 (UTC)
- The instances where people survived under water for extended periods of time, however, is not a myth. This is known as cold water drowning -- Chris 73 Talk 06:41, Sep 6, 2004 (UTC)
- It's not a myth. It is, however, in the article twice - under "Cardiac Arrest and Death" and again at the end of "Rescue and Treatment" - which is why I removed one and only one of those appearances. That's what the 'duplicate' in the edit summary was for. --Calair 06:49, 6 Sep 2004 (UTC)
I did a tremendous amount of gramatical revision to this page and fixed some of the above concerns. In the process, several lines struck me. "Near drowning incidents are estimated to be 2 to 500 times the number of drowning incidents."
As an engineer I think it's silly to report such uncertain data.
"If the victim is physically much stronger than the rescuer, there may be cases where it is advisable for the rescuer to wait until the victim passes out so that the victim does not accidentally drown the rescuer."
Though I am not a trained EMS responder, this seems ludicrous and potentially dangerous to include in Wikipedia. If you have either the credentials or sources to back it up, please put it back in.
--Casito 23:37, 5 Jan 2005 (UTC)
- Thanks for your great work in fixing Grammar. About the "wait till victim passes out": I have a number of lifesaving licenses in Germany and the US (but no EMS), and this point was definitely taught in the German classes, and I think also in the US classes. A panicking victim can drown a weaker rescuer, and it is always advised to approach a panicking victim in the water from behind, using a special grip to secure and immobilize the victim. If the panicking victim is stronger than the rescuer, the victim can drown the rescuer. In this case it is better to wait until the victim calms down (i.e. passes out). In the worst case, this would mean one person dead (victim) instead of two (victim and rescuer). However, I agree that ethically and also legally, this topic is difficult. Hope this answered your question. -- Chris 73 Talk 00:56, Jan 6, 2005 (UTC)
