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The Risks of Swimming Alone: Do You Really Understand the Potential Threat of Drowning?
Drowning is a form of suffocation caused by immersing the mouth and nose in liquid. Drowning accidents refer to drownings and near-drowning incidents. Most fatal drownings occur alone or when others are unaware of the victim's plight or unable to help. After successful resuscitation, a drowning victim may experience difficulty breathing, confusion, or even coma. Sometimes, victims may begin to experience these symptoms hours after being rescued.
Instances of drowning may lead to further complications for the victim due to hypothermia, inhalation of foreign bodies, or acute respiratory distress syndrome.
The risk of drowning lies in being near large bodies of water for extended periods of time. Risk factors for drowning include alcohol abuse, drug use, seizures, inadequate or no swimming training, and, in children, lack of supervision. Common places for drowning include natural and man-made bodies of water, bathtubs, and swimming pools. Drowning occurs when a person spends too much time submerging their nose and mouth in liquid until they can no longer breathe. If not immediately refloated, low oxygen levels and excess carbon dioxide in the blood can trigger a respiratory emergency in the nervous system, which can cause a lot of physical distress in the body and constriction of the throat.
Although the word "drowning" is often associated with a fatal outcome, drowning can be divided into three types: drowning that results in death, drowning that results in long-term health problems, and drowning without health complications.
Among children, health problems occur in about 7.5% of survivors. Measures to prevent drowning include teaching children and adults to swim, recognizing hazardous water conditions, never swimming alone, using personal flotation devices on boats or in adverse water conditions, limiting or removing access to water (e.g. with fences) segregated swimming pools), and appropriate supervision. For victims who cannot breathe, an airway should be immediately opened and five rescue breaths given by mouth should be provided. Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) is recommended for people whose heart has stopped and who has been underwater for less than an hour.
Reason
The main cause of drowning is insufficient swimming ability. Other contributing factors include water conditions, distance from solid ground, physical limitations, or previous loss of consciousness. Anxiety due to fear of drowning or facing water can cause fatigue, which increases the chance of drowning. According to statistics, about 90% of drowning incidents occur in fresh water (such as rivers, lakes and a relatively small number of swimming pools), and the remaining 10% occur in sea water. Drownings in other liquids are rare and are usually associated with industrial accidents.
It is said that in New Zealand's early colonial history, many immigrants drowned while trying to cross rivers, so much so that drowning became known as "the death of New Zealand".
A person lying face down can drown even in as little as 30 millimeters (1.2 inches) of water. Complications after initial drowning may include irritation of the lungs by aspirated fluid. Even small amounts of fluid may cause leakage of fluid from the lungs (pulmonary edema) after several hours; this reduces the ability to exchange gases, causing a person to "drown in their own body fluids." Vomited substances and certain harmful gases (such as poisonous gases in chemical warfare) may also cause similar effects. This reaction may occur within 72 hours of the initial event and result in serious injury or death.
Risk factors
Many behavioral and physical factors are associated with drowning. Drowning is the most common cause of death for people with epilepsy, especially in bathtubs. People with epilepsy are at higher risk of drowning, but this risk is particularly pronounced in low- and middle-income countries. Alcohol abuse increases the risk of drowning in many advanced and developing countries, with approximately 50% of fatal drownings and 35% of non-fatal drownings involving alcohol. Inadequate swimming ability can lead to drowning. This risk can be reduced by taking formal swimming lessons, ideally between 1 and 4 years old.
Fatigue can reduce swimming performance and can be exacerbated by restless movements when fearful, which increases the risk of drowning.
In addition, drownings in natural waters increase with age. Half of the drowning incidents among people over 15 years old occur in these natural waters. High-risk groups in the United States are mainly the elderly and young people. Child mortality rates from drowning are highest among the under-five age group and those aged 15 to 24 years. Between 1999 and 2010, fatal drowning rates were significantly higher among African Americans over age 29 than among whites of the same age group. The drowning rate for African-American children between the ages of 5 and 14 is nearly three times that of white children of the same age, and the rate is 5.5 times higher in swimming pools. Such differences may be related to the lack of basic swimming training for some ethnic minorities.
Freediving
There are other causes of drowning during freediving. For example, ascending asphyxia occurs due to lack of oxygen when ascending in deep water. Because at the bottom of deep water, the partial pressure of oxygen in the lungs is sufficient to support consciousness, but as the water pressure drops, the partial pressure of oxygen will fall below the suffocation threshold during the ascent. This usually occurs near water where the water pressure is close to normal atmospheric pressure. Shallow water asphyxia is caused by hyperventilating before swimming or diving.
It can be seen that when facing the hidden dangers of water, how big the potential risk is swimming alone?
