‘Dry drowning’ or ‘Secondary drowning’ is a myth. Created from social media sensationalism and are not real medical terms.
But ‘Submersion injuries’ are REAL.
Non fatal submersion injury or Fatal submersion injuries are the correct medical terms.
If your child has a significant submersion event in water where they need to be pulled out and have coughing, choking, gagging and breathing difficulties, where they have aspirated water in their lungs, they need to be seen by a medical professional urgently.
However there is a small group of kids who have a little bit of gagging or choking after a significant water event but appear to be ok. Symptoms will get worse in 4-8 hours, not days later. This is a serious submersion injury. They may still have some water in their lungs and have some or all of the following symptoms.
1. Shortness of breath
2. Vomitting
3. Blue around lips
4. Altered mental status
5. Worsening coughing
6. Difficulty breathing
I can’t emphasize enough that these are not kids who just popped their faces in the bath or were swimming really hard in the pool. They have to have had a significant event happen in water to get a submersion injury.
If any of these symptoms occur 4-8 hours later get medical emergency help immediately. Keep checking on your child after any near drowning incident.
1. If you see someone in trouble, call 999 or 112 and ask for the coastguard or fire and rescue.
2. If there is something that floats to hand, throw it to them but don’t enter the water yourself.
3. As soon as the casualty has been rescued from the water, check if they’re breathing.
4. If the person is unresponsive and not breathing, give them five initial rescue breaths before starting CPR.
5. Once you’ve done this, start CPR: 30 chest compressions, then two rescue breaths. Keep giving CPR until help arrives, the casualty regains responsiveness, or you’re too exhausted to keep going.
6. If they start breathing again at any time, treat them for hypothermia by covering them with warm clothes and blankets. If they recover completely, replace their wet clothes with dry ones.
7. Keep checking breathing, pulse and level of response until help arrives.
8. Even if they appear to recover well, keep checking on them for signs of a submersion injury 4-8 hours later.
Take a first aid course to give you the confidence to act fast in a drowning emergency. You’ll learn the latest resuscitation techniques to save a child’s life. Or Contact Us.
