Written by Mario Vittone
(reprinted with permission from The Comprehensive Guide to Wildness First Aid by Clifton Castleman, WEMT)
As summer quickly approaches – swimmers beware!
Drowning is almost always a deceptively quiet event. The waving, splashing, and yelling that dramatic conditioning (television) prepares us to look for, is rarely seen in real life.
The new captain jumped from the cockpit, fully dressed, and sprinted through the water. A former lifeguard, he kept his eyes on his victim as he headed straight for the owners who were swimming between their anchored sportfisher and the beach. “I think he thinks you’re drowning,” the husband said to his wife. They had been splashing each other and she had screamed but now they were just standing, neck-deep on the sand bar. “We’re fine, what is he doing?” she asked, a little annoyed. “We’re fine!” the husband yelled, waving him off, but his captain kept swimming hard. ”Move!” he barked as he sprinted between the stunned owners. Directly behind them, not ten feet away, their nine-year-old daughter was drowning. Safely above the surface in the arms of the captain, she burst into tears, “Daddy!”
How did this captain know, from fifty feet away, what the father couldn’t recognize from just ten? Drowning is not the violent, splashing, call for help that most people expect. The captain was trained to recognize drowning by experts and years of experience. The father, on the other hand, had learned what drowning looks like by watching television. If you spend time on or near the water (hint: that’s all of us) then you should make sure that you and your crew knows what to look for whenever people enter the water. Until she cried a tearful, “Daddy,” she hadn’t made a sound. As a former Coast Guard rescue swimmer, I wasn’t surprised at all by this story. Drowning is almost always a deceptively quiet event. The waving, splashing, and yelling that dramatic conditioning (television) prepares us to look for, is rarely seen in real life.
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 Guard’s On Scene Magazine, described the instinctive drowning response like this:
Except in rare circumstances, drowning people are physiologically unable to call out for help. Th e respiratory system was designed for breathing. Speech is the secondary or overlaid function. Breathing must be fulfilled, before speech occurs.
Drowning people’s mouths alternately sink below and reappear above the surface of the water. The mouths of drowning people are not above the surface of the water long enough for them to exhale, inhale, and call out for help. When the drowning people’s mouths are above the surface, they exhale and inhale quickly as their mouths start to sink below the surface of the water.
Drowning people cannot wave for help. Nature instinctively forces them to extend their arms laterally and press down on the water’s surface. Pressing down on the surface of the water, permits drowning people to leverage their bodies so they can lift their mouths out of the water to breathe.
Throughout the Instinctive Drowning Response, drowning people cannot voluntarily control their arm movements. Physiologically, drowning people who are struggling on the surface of the water cannot stop drowning and perform voluntary movements such as waving for help, moving toward a rescuer, or reaching out for a piece of rescue equipment.
From beginning to end of the Instinctive Drowning Response people’s bodies remain upright in the water, with no evidence of a supporting kick. Unless rescued by a trained lifeguard, these drowning people can only struggle on the surface of the water from 20 to 60 seconds before submersion occurs. (Source: On Scene Magazine: Fall 2006)
This doesn’t mean that a person that is yelling for help and thrashing isn’t in real trouble – they are experience aquatic distress. Not always present before the instinctive drowning response, aquatic distress doesn’t last long – but unlike true drowning, these victims can still assist in there own rescue. They can grab lifelines, throw rings, etc.
Look for these other signs of drowning when persons are n the water:
- Head low in the water, mouth at water level
- Head tilted back with mouth open
- Eyes glassy and empty, unable to focus
- Eyes closed
- Hair over forehead or eyes
- Not using legs – Vertical
- Hyperventilating or gasping
- Trying to swim in a particular direction but not making headway
- Trying to roll over on the back
- Ladder climb, rarely out of the water.
So if a crew member falls overboard and every looks O.K. – don’t be too sure. Sometimes the most common indication that someone is drowning is that they don’t look like they’re drowning. They may just look like they are treading water and looking up at the deck. One way to be sure? Ask them: “Are you alright?” If they can answer at all – they probably are. If they return a blank stare – you may have less than 30 seconds to get to them. And parents: children playing in the water make noise. When they get quiet, you get to them and find out why.
May 30, 2012 at 1:45 AM
Black flies, mosquitoes, no-see-ums, horseflies, ticks. No matter what your favorite outdoor sport is, encounters with biting, stinging, and generally annoying bugs are the price you pay to play outside, especially in New England. Eastern Mountain Sports sponsored athlete Joe Kinder has climbed all over the word and yet, “My worst bug experiences have always been in Pawtuckaway State Park or Rumney…NO doubt, the worst I have ever experienced.”
Now that the snow is finally gone and the mercury is starting to creep up, it’s time to reacquaint ourselves with the tools and tactics for keeping nature’s irritants from ruining a great day outdoors. I spoke with Alan Eaton, Integrated Pest Management
Specialist at the University of New Hampshire Cooperative Extension. While Alan isn’t in the business of recommending products, he had some great advice for avoiding bugs outdoors. “Insects are attracted to both visual cues and odor cues,” he explained. If you’re one of those people who gets chowed on while your friend goes unscathed, it may be because you have a high concentration of ammonia in your perspiration. There’s not much you can do about your body chemistry other than alter it slightly with a topical repellent. “The active ingredients in effective repellents don’t actually repel insects, but confuse them by blocking the receptors they use to detect appropriate hosts for them to bite,” he said.
Cliff Stevens, owner of Moxie Tours, which operates whitewater rafting tours in Maine and Massachusetts, said this: “I always tell people to wear light-colored clothes like a white turtleneck and loose khaki pants. If the mosquitoes are really bad, you can soak a hat in bug repellent or tie a repellent-soaked bandanna around your neck, but the real key is to cover up so there’s no skin for them to bite.” Why light clothing? Because dark colors are one of the visual cues that Alan from UNHCE mentioned earlier. “Dark clothing is attractive to insects, so it’s best to avoid wearing black, gray, blue, and brown during the summer months,” Alan said.
As a biologist for the New Hampshire Fish and Game Department, Mike Marchand’s amphibian field research puts him into direct contact with just about every species of insect in the state. In addition to the light-colored, lightweight clothing and repellents Cliff recommends, Mike sometimes has to take things a step further: “During peak mosquito and black fly periods (often May-June for southern NH), I usually carry a head net in my pack. Head nets have allowed me to maintain some level of sanity on more than a couple occasions. The nets help reduce bites to the head and neck, but perhaps more satisfying is that they tend to keep that annoying buzzing of the mosquitoes a few inches from your ears.”
When it comes to repellents, my insect experts were divided. Mike Marchand has used Deep Woods Off with moderate amounts of DEET, while Joe Kinder and Eastern Mountain Sports photographer Tim Kemple both recommend Ben’s with “a ton of DEET” to keep mosquitoes at bay (you’ll find a variety of repellents offering varying concentrations of DEET at ems.com). Me? I generally try to go the natural route on my kayaking adventures, and I’ve had some good success with Herbal Armor from All Terrain.
A few more facts about DEET: In addition to multiple published articles that discuss the threats to the nervous system from extensive contact with DEET, we know that it can also melt off the waterproof coatings on nylon fabrics, so be very careful when applying it near your tent, pack, or rain gear. For this reason, many people prefer repellents with permethrin, a synthetic version of a chrysanthemum plant hormone. Finally, if you prefer to avoid direct skin contact altogether, look for Repel Permanone, which can be applied directly to clothing and gear. Whether you prefer a natural repellent or the power of DEET, you’ll find a bunch of repellent options as well as the head nets Mike recommends at Eastern Mountain Sports and REI.
While the right clothing, a good repellent, and protective netting will greatly reduce your chances of getting bitten by one of New England’s many flying menaces, it’s pretty much impossible to avoid contact altogether. In the wise words of Joe Kinder, “tolerance is key”—a sentiment echoed by Mike Marchand, who also puts a positive spin on this irritating problem: “The good news is that there are other species that feed on these biters. Spotted salamander larvae and some fish will eat mosquito larvae. Dragonflies will zip back and forth eating all types of adult insects. So, as painful (and itchy) as it is at times, these biters still play a role in the natural world.” Well said, Mike. I think we can all take some satisfaction in biting insects being food for other creatures. When you get right down to it, there’s a place for everything in the outdoors, and with the right amount of bug protection, there’s a place for you, too.
May 13, 2011 at 8:51 AM
We figured that it would only be a matter of time before the US Department of Health would require all AEDs to be registered. For the past few years, there has been much talk of this, and has been recommended up to this point, but never actually enforced. The DoH has however started to require a physician’s prescription as of 2010.
This new effort will be great to finally get more accurate statistics on AED usage, numbers, etc.
For more information and to register your AED, please visit the official Department of Health AED Registration page, located here.
April 1, 2011 at 10:16 AM
Specialist at the University of New Hampshire Cooperative Extension. While Alan isn’t in the business of recommending products, he had some great advice for avoiding bugs outdoors. “Insects are attracted to both visual cues and odor cues,” he explained. If you’re one of those people who gets chowed on while your friend goes unscathed, it may be because you have a high concentration of ammonia in your perspiration. There’s not much you can do about your body chemistry other than alter it slightly with a topical repellent. “The active ingredients in effective repellents don’t actually repel insects, but confuse them by blocking the receptors they use to detect appropriate hosts for them to bite,” he said.
Cliff Stevens, owner of Moxie Tours, which operates whitewater rafting tours in Maine and Massachusetts, said this: “I always tell people to wear light-colored clothes like a white turtleneck and loose khaki pants. If the mosquitoes are really bad, you can soak a hat in bug repellent or tie a repellent-soaked bandanna around your neck, but the real key is to cover up so there’s no skin for them to bite.” Why light clothing? Because dark colors are one of the visual cues that Alan from UNHCE mentioned earlier. “Dark clothing is attractive to insects, so it’s best to avoid wearing black, gray, blue, and brown during the summer months,” Alan said.
While the right clothing, a good repellent, and protective netting will greatly reduce your chances of getting bitten by one of New England’s many flying menaces, it’s pretty much impossible to avoid contact altogether. In the wise words of Joe Kinder, “tolerance is key”—a sentiment echoed by Mike Marchand, who also puts a positive spin on this irritating problem: “The good news is that there are other species that feed on these biters. Spotted salamander larvae and some fish will eat mosquito larvae. Dragonflies will zip back and forth eating all types of adult insects. So, as painful (and itchy) as it is at times, these biters still play a role in the natural world.” Well said, Mike. I think we can all take some satisfaction in biting insects being food for other creatures. When you get right down to it, there’s a place for everything in the outdoors, and with the right amount of bug protection, there’s a place for you, too.
