The events that result in drowning can be divided into the following sequence: (i) struggle to keep the airway clear of the water, (ii) initial submersion and breath-holding, (iii) aspiration of water, (iv) unconsciousness, (v) cardio-respiratory arrest and (vi) death – inability to revive.
People who've entered the 5th stage of drowning are now facing irreversible damage to their vital organs, such as: the heart, brain, lungs and liver. The golden rule for biological death is 3 minutes. It takes up to 3 minutes of no oxygen for the brain cells to start dying.
Drowning can be categorized into five different types: near drowning, dry drowning, freshwater drowning, saltwater drowning, and secondary drowning.
Drowning Signs And Symptoms:
decreased activity. mental confusion. blue colour on skin and lips. loss of consciousness.
An average person can last between one and three minutes before falling unconscious and around ten minutes before dying.
3-5 days after death — the body starts to bloat and blood-containing foam leaks from the mouth and nose. 8-10 days after death — the body turns from green to red as the blood decomposes and the organs in the abdomen accumulate gas. Several weeks after death — nails and teeth fall out.
Physicians believe that brain damage begins to occur after about five minutes of oxygen deprivation. “If you can rescue a child before that and restore their breathing with CPR, and get their breathing back, usually the children will recover,” Dr. Goodman says. “After five minutes, there will be brain damage.
The usual postmortem changes of vascular marbling, dark discoloration of skin and soft tissue, bloating, and putrefaction occur in the water as they do on land though at a different rate, particularly in cold water (4).
Delayed symptoms of drowning include shortness of breath, difficulty breathing, coughing and/or chest discomfort. Extreme fatigue, irritability and behavior changes are also possible. Remain vigilant for about 24 hours, even if your child appears happy and playful with no apparent problem at all.
The head is tilted back to get air. The eyes are either wide open or tightly shut. The mouth is often in an “O” shape from struggling to get air. To an untrained eye, this will look like a swimming behavior, but is in fact an instinctual panic behavior.
Children ages 1–4 have the highest drowning rates. Most drownings in children 1–4 happen in swimming pools.
Give five initial rescue breaths, and then continue with cycles of 30 compressions and two rescue breaths.
Dead bodies in the water usually tend to sink at first, but later they tend to float, as the post-mortem changes brought on by putrefaction produce enough gases to make them buoyant.
Call 999. Perform chest compressions to the time of "Staying Alive". Do not give rescue breaths. Continue compressions until help arrives.
Fact: Despite what you may have seen in movies, in real life drowning is silent and can happen quickly. This is a particularly dangerous myth when it comes to young children. They can't figure out what to do, such as right themselves or stand up, even in a few inches of water.
As the lungs become more ineffective and fluid accumulates within the lungs, symptoms such as coughing, fast breathing, increased work of breathing, low oxygen levels, and altered mental status (irritability or lethargy) may quickly occur.
“They're silent and struggling just to keep their nose and mouth above the water," says Steinman. "Their arms are outstretched, trying to keep themselves up out of the water. It's a very quiet, desperate posture." This silent, almost calm behavior is called the instinctive drowning response.
Most studies on near drowning report complications such as cardiopulmonary arrest, multiorgan failure, pulmonary oedema, pneumonia and hypoxic brain injury. Other reports highlight rarer haematological complications including haemolysis and coagulopathy (Layon & Modell, 2009.
Water can also damage the lungs, causing acute respiratory distress syndrome or pulmonary edema. Drowning might cause multisystem organ failure, damage the heart, kidneys and/or liver. The amount of organ damage varies depending on the individual, their submersion time and the water's temperature.
The putrefaction of flesh produces gases, primarily in the chest and gut, that inflate a corpse like a balloon. In warm, shallow water, decomposition works quickly, surfacing a corpse within two or three days.
Saving someone who is drowning is more difficult and dangerous than many people think (heck, even realizing someone is drowning is hard — the signs don't look like you think they would.) A person who's drowning can be panicked and clutch, kick, and grab at you as you try to rescue them, dragging you both underwater.
Near-Drownings Can Cause Traumatic Brain Injury
The lack of oxygen to the brain can lead to long-term dysfunction, such as memory loss, learning disabilities, and loss of motor functioning. It could also lead to a traumatic brain injury. A near-drowning incident can cause anoxic brain damage.
Bone proteins can help identify how long a body has been submerged in water. One of the most important tasks for forensic scientists after a body is found is to determine the exact time of death. This is key in piecing together the events that led up the death and is especially important when a crime is suspected.
24-72 hours postmortem: internal organs begin to decompose due to cell death; the body begins to emit pungent odors; rigor mortis subsides. 3-5 days postmortem: as organs continue to decompose, bodily fluids leak from orifices; the skin turns a greenish color.
For reasons that still aren't well understood, human skin starts to break down after continuous immersion in water of a few days. You'd suffer open sores and be liable to fungal and bacterial infections just from the spores on your skin, even if the water itself was perfectly sterile.