Drowning

[monsterchic]

When rescuing a drowning person, how does one force water out of their lungs? Is it basically just pushing on their chest (stomach?) until they can breathe and cough it out themselves?

 

[allmywires]

All I know* is that when doing CPR you don't do a breath first, you just go straight to pumping the chest.

*did a maritime first aid course last year.

 

[monsterchic]

So it is the chest? I think I'm getting the Heimlich and CPR mixed around.

 

[allmywires]

You pump the sort of sternum area? Just under the breasts on women. With crossed, flat hands. If I recall correctly...

 

[monsterchic]

Okay, that's where I was thinking. Just didn't know what exactly to call it, as it's kind of in the middle.

 

[Montero]

Also try lying them on a slope if available, head down the slope, so water runs out. If very strong, pick them up and hang them upside down - works on newborn lambs - ones that have got birth fluid somewhere unsuitable and are spluttering.

Note that with drowning there is getting water out of lungs and also ensuring the person is breathing and their heart is beating - as in empty lungs plus CPR.
There have been several versions of CPR or possibly drowning recovery down the years - I have a memory of one version being to use the arms as a sort of pump.

Also important to check the airway is clear - as in open mouth, peer in, possibly stick in fingers (pull out seaweed perhaps) and that you tip the head right back. Need to ensure that the tongue isn't falling into the throat.

 

[Abernovo]

One hand on top of the other, as amw says. That pressing of the chest, though, is more to do with the heart, I think. If you can keep the blood flowing, the oxygen in the blood will keep going to the brain. As an aside, it's easy to crack ribs doing this, but that's better than them being dead.

The respiration part comes second, to introduce more air into the lungs. Once the body starts to 'realise' it's not all over, cough reflexes may kick in and push out some of the water. That's where the recovery position can help, with liquids, whether water or vomit, being less obstructed from leaving the body.

First of all, keep them alive. Then, help the rest of the water drain.

 

[Ursa major]

Use of all the above advice presupposes that the character trying to revive the drowning (ex-drowning?) person is aware of all the above**. If they're not, they're not necessarily going to be able to work out, on the spot, exactly what to do.

The average person (even the average person on the shore) may not have the foggiest idea how to proceed.




** - I.e. they've had training or have seen the procedure before and have a very vivid (and exact) recollection of that previous event (or events).

 

[monsterchic]

Thanks for all the information Another question along with this topic now--if you're giving a person CPR, when you push on their chest, do their appendages jump a little every time? Never taken a class and know nothing about CPR, so I'll be asking some random questions.

Also, how long does a body have to be without oxygen until the brain shuts down completely and you die?

Also Also--how would a person feel who has regained consciousness very suddenly? Like, you're between consciousness and unconsciousness (and getting water pumped out of your lungs), and suddenly, BAM! you're awake and coughing on the beach?

 

[TheDustyZebra]

I almost drowned as a child, but they didn't have to do any chest compressions on me. They just laid me on the riverbank, head downward, and the water came out -- I started coughing and probably vomiting and got it out. I was rather green around the gills, as my mother put it (appropriate given that it was the Green River).

I remember it being pretty fuzzy -- I was wading in the river, pointing at the bridge and yelling "train!" and then I was under the water and kicking at somebody grabbing me (I thought he was holding me down) and then I was on the bank with all these people around me, coughing and feeling lousy. I was also pretty ticked off that I didn't get to see any more of the train -- it was the first passenger train I'd ever seen.

 

[Abernovo]

monsterchic, I've heard it called the Law of 3s. You can survive 3 minutes without air, 3 days without water, and 3 weeks without food.

There are factors that come into play. Everybody's heard of people falling into freezing rivers and being trapped under the ice for much longer, yet surviving without major side effects. It happens, due to the body shutting down, but it is the exception. The 3s can vary due to health, age and training. Free divers can go without air for 5 minutes sometimes. Other people may effectively die after 2 minutes. So the 'Law of 3s' is a guideline only.

As far as I know, the limbs don't jerk. They may move, though, as you are using force on their body. Thankfully, I've never had to put the CPR part of my First Aid training into practice. As Ursa says, this does all suppose that the person doing the rescuing has some knowledge of resuscitation.

Never drowned, but I have been knocked unconscious a couple of times, and fainted, due to illness. Like TDZ, when I came round I was a little fuzzy. On more than one occasion, I wondered why I was on the deck. Once, I wondered how long I'd been out, followed by the realisation that I was in pain (only then remembering the rugby boot closing in on my nose, just before it going blank). So, purely for me, it was stages of consciousness - quite confusing, but only lasting a minute or two.

 

[Montero]

If you finished up with CPR in your scene, it is exhausting. Pumping away at someone's chest, then breathing in their mouth. If I recall correctly, and really must do a refresher of some sort, it is five compressions, two breaths. As well as getting the position of the head correct, you pinch the nose shut.

If you have two people doing CPR one does compressions, other breathing, and then you swap.

Try a search of You Tube, see if there are instructional videos.

Children and especially babies can be killed by CPR - too much force on the chest cracks ribs and damages the heart. I think you use 2 fingers for babies, not the base of your hand BUT my course was done at work for work first aid so only really covered adults, with mention of kids and babies but no relevant practice.

Remember that there can also be brain damage from lack of oxygen - person survives but is not the same again.

Drowning itself - I understand that getting water in the lungs could be painful, though TDZ's experience didn't include that.

 

[TheDustyZebra]

Remember that there can also be brain damage from lack of oxygen - person survives but is not the same again.

Drowning itself - I understand that getting water in the lungs could be painful, though TDZ's experience didn't include that.

Brain damage! That's my excuse!

It could very well have been painful -- I have a lousy memory, and only those few things stick, even from something so serious. For me, as a child, the thing that stuck the most in conscious memory was that the train was gone and I hadn't gotten close enough to it for my liking. The rest didn't seem as important as the train. I was very single-minded about trains. I do know that we continued on our trip after a while -- we were on the way to my grandparents' house, Colorado to Idaho.

I've never cared for water since then, and never could learn to swim because every time my feet went out from under me, I panicked. There's the subconscious part of the memory.