Dry Drowning

[Mateo_1387]

Wow, is really all I can say. I also feel for the family.

[web:cb93048329]http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24982210/&GT1=43001[/web:cb93048329]

[Lone Star]

Mateo,

Looks like you and I noticed the same thing, right around the same time....

I had started a thread on the same topic, only to find that yours posted just before mine did. I deleted the thread I started, and decided to post it here with yours.

While reading the MSN website, I came across a story about a South Carolina boy who died as a result of 'dry drowning'...has anyone ever come across this situation, or even known that it was a possibility?

[align=center:83d7788085]Boy’s death highlights a hidden danger: Dry drowning[/align:83d7788085]

[align=center:83d7788085]10-year-old died more than an hour after getting out of swimming pool[/align:83d7788085]

By Mike Celizic

TODAYShow.com contributor

updated 9:58 a.m. ET, Thurs., June. 5, 2008

The tragic death of a South Carolina 10-year-old more than an hour after he had gone swimming has focused a spotlight on the little-known phenomenon called “dry drowning” — and warning signs that every parent should be aware of.

“I’ve never known a child could walk around, talk, speak and their lungs be filled with water,” Cassandra Jackson told NBC News in a story broadcast Thursday on TODAY.

On Sunday, Jackson had taken her son, Johnny, to a pool near their home in Goose Creek, S.C. It was the first time he’d ever gone swimming — and, tragically, it would be his last.

At some point during his swim, Johnny got some water in his lungs. He didn’t show any immediate signs of respiratory distress, but the boy had an accident in the pool and soiled himself. Still, Johnny, his sister and their mother walked home together.

“We physically walked home. He walked with me,” Jackson said, still trying to understand how her son could have died. “I bathed him, and he told me that he was sleepy.”

Spongy material

Later, she went into his room to check on him. “I walked over to the bed, and his face was literally covered with this spongy white material,” she said. “And I screamed.”

A family friend, Christine Meekins, was visiting and went to see what was wrong. “I pulled his arm and said, ‘Johnny! Johnny!’ ” Meekins told NBC. “There was no response. I opened one of his eyes and I just knew inside my heart that it was something really bad.”

Johnny was rushed to a local hospital, but it was too late. Johnny had drowned, long after he got out of the swimming pool.

According to the Centers for Disease Control, some 3,600 people drowned in 2005, the most recent year for which there are statistics. Some 10 to 15 percent of those deaths was classified as “dry drowning,” which can occur up to 24 hours after a small amount of water gets into the lungs. In children, that can happen during a bath.

Dr. Daniel Rauch, a pediatrician from New York University Langone Medical Center, told TODAY’s Meredith Vieira that there are warning signs that every parent should be aware of. Johnny Jackson exhibited some of them, but unless a parent knows what to look for, they are easily overlooked or misinterpreted.

The three important signs, he said, are difficulty breathing, extreme tiredness and changes in behavior. All are the result of reduced oxygen flow to the brain.

Johnny had two of those signs — he was very tired when he got home, and he had had the accident in the pool. But like most parents, Cassandra Jackson had no idea this could be related to water in his lungs.

Delayed reaction

Rauch said that the phenomenon of dry drowning is not completely understood. But medical researchers say that in some people, a small amount of inhaled water can have a delayed-reaction effect.

“It can take a while for the process to occur and to set in and cause difficulties,” Rauch said. “Because it is a lung process, difficulty breathing is the first sign that you would be worried about.”

The second sign is extreme fatigue, which isn’t always easy to spot. “It’s very difficult to tell when your child is abnormally tired versus normal tired after a hot day and running around in the pool,” Rauch said. “The job of the lungs is to get oxygen into the blood and your brain needs oxygen to keep working, so when your brain isn’t getting oxygen, it can start doing funny things. One of them is becoming excessively tired, losing consciousness and the inability to be aroused appropriately.”

Finally, there are changes in behavior, Rauch said — another tough call when dealing with very small children, whose moods and behavior can change from one minute to the next.

“Another response of the brain to not getting oxygen is to do different things,” Rauch explained, saying parents should be concerned “if your child’s abnormally cranky, abnormally combative — any dramatic change from their normal pattern.”

He admitted, “It is very difficult to pick this up sometimes.” But spotting the warning signs and getting a suspected victim to an emergency room can save a life, he added.

Victims of dry drowning are treated by having a breathing tube inserted so that oxygen can be supplied under pressure to the lungs. “Then we just wait for the lung to heal itself,” he said.

But for Cassandra Jackson, it’s knowledge gained too late. She and Meekins sat in her home, looking at pictures of the bright and happy son who was no more.

“He was very loving, full of life,” the grieving mother said. “That was my little man.”

[DwayneEMTP]

I'm not sure what the physiology is, unless perhaps this is salt water we're talking about...But the story sucks. It makes it sound as if he actually drowned at the pool, but his body didn't know it until he got home. Going to freak a lot of parents out without bothering to give any real information...

I hate the news media....

Dwayne

[ccmedoc]

I'm not sure what the physiology is, unless perhaps this is salt water we're talking about...But the story sucks. It makes it sound as if he actually drowned at the pool, but his body didn't know it until he got home. Going to freak a lot of parents out without bothering to give any real information...

I believe that the reference to dry drowning is incorrect. I was under the assumption that dry drowning was in fact asphyxiation secondary to laryngospasm after sudden submersion in cold water...the person drowns with no water entering the lungs...

This case explained, what I have been taught as, secondary drowning..occurring after a near drowning episode. The small amount of water entering the lungs causes irritation and, subsequently, fluid production. The resultant fluid accumulation and fluid shifts produce a pulmonary edema and the individual drowns in this fluid. This can occur many hours after the near drowning..

Some say that a small child can drown in a tablespoon of water due to this condition. Another reason not to leave small children alone around water....

[gra_me_forever]

Dry Drowning : drowning in an individual whose laryngeal reflexes are brisk, resulting in spasm that prevents inhalation of water; may be associated with the highest recovery rate.

http://www.biology-online.org/dictionary/Dry_drowning

Secondary Drowning:

http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlere...i?artid=1714551

I believe this boy died from secondary drowning and agree with ccmedoc... hope the links help to provide some clarity for everyone.

[tamaith]

sad story... but i was taught that in dry drowning there is no h2o hence the term dry.

[AnthonyM83]

Wow, had no idea...

[ERDoc]

Just to keep things current, all of the terms being thrown around here are obsolete. The new term, recognized by international consenus, is drowning and then has modifiers such as death, with morbidity or without morbidity. Here is a link to the paper from the international body.

[Kaisu]

Nice link - thanks Doc. The education continues.

[AZCEP]

Just to keep things current, all of the terms being thrown around here are obsolete. The new term, recognized by international consenus, is drowning and then has modifiers such as death, with morbidity or without morbidity. Here is a link to the paper from the international body.

Maybe I'm just being simple, but how do you have death without morbidity?

Or why categorize something as with morbidity when that should mean death, right?