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The most dangerous myth about drowning is that you will hear it. Film and television have trained people to expect shouting, waving and splashing. Real drowning is usually silent, and it is often over in well under a minute.
Why a drowning person cannot call for help
Speech is a secondary function of the respiratory system. Breathing comes first. A person struggling to keep their airway above water cannot spare the breath to shout, and their mouth is repeatedly sinking below the surface and rising again, so any sound is broken and brief.
The arms are also occupied. Instinct drives them to press down laterally on the water to lever the mouth clear. That instinctive movement cannot be overridden, which is why a drowning person cannot wave, cannot reach for a rescue tube and cannot grab a rope thrown to them.
What to look for instead
- Head low in the water, mouth at water level, tilted back
- Eyes glassy and unfocused, or closed
- Hair over the forehead or eyes and not being pushed away
- Body vertical in the water with no supporting kick
- Attempting to swim in a direction and making no progress
- Attempting to roll onto the back and failing
- Quiet. A swimmer who was noisy and goes quiet needs checking immediately
Distress is different from drowning
A swimmer in distress can still call out and can still help in their own rescue. Distress may last a minute or more, which gives you time to act. Drowning gives you far less. Both need a response, but the quiet case is the urgent one.
What should I do if I notice these signs?
Do not enter the water unless you are trained and equipped. Reach or throw first. Send someone to call emergency services and to bring an AED. If the person is unresponsive and not breathing normally when they are out of the water, start compressions and rescue breaths.
Recognition is a trained skill, and it is the part of Lifeguard Training that most changes outcomes. Scanning technique, the ten twenty standard and the drills that build it are covered in a Lifeguard Training Class.
How long does a drowning person stay at the surface?
The instinctive drowning response lasts somewhere between twenty and sixty seconds in adults, and often less in small children. That is the whole window. It is not a long struggle that gives bystanders time to notice something is wrong and decide what to do, which is the picture most people carry from film and television.
This is why scanning has to be continuous rather than periodic. A supervisor who looks up every thirty seconds is not covering the water, because the entire event can begin and end between two glances. It is also why the phrase signs of drowning is slightly misleading: what you are watching for is the absence of normal behavior more than the presence of dramatic signs.
Why do parents miss a drowning happening feet away?
Because nothing about it looks like an emergency. There is no splashing, no shout, and no waving. A child going under quietly at the edge of a busy pool reads as a child playing, and the surrounding noise removes the one cue people are unconsciously listening for.
The second factor is diffusion of responsibility. At a party or a family gathering, everybody assumes somebody is watching, and the result is that nobody is. This is the reasoning behind the water watcher system: one named adult, no phone, no conversation, for a fixed rotation of fifteen or twenty minutes, then handing the role to somebody else out loud.
What is the difference between drowning and secondary drowning?
Drowning is the process of respiratory impairment from being in or under water, and it happens in the water. The terms secondary and dry drowning are not used clinically, and the phenomenon behind them is rarer than the coverage suggests, but the underlying caution is sound. A child who was submerged and has been coughing, is unusually tired, or is breathing oddly in the hours afterward needs medical assessment.
The practical rule is simple. Any submersion serious enough to need pulling out is serious enough to watch afterward, and any breathing change after a water incident is a reason to get checked rather than to wait and see.
What should you do when you recognize it?
Reach or throw before you go. A conscious drowning person is in an involuntary panic state and will climb anything that reaches them, including the rescuer, which is how a single drowning becomes two. Extend a pole, a towel, a noodle or an oar from a stable position on the deck or the bank, or throw something that floats with a line attached.
Enter the water only if you are trained and equipped, and take a flotation device with you so the person has something to grab that is not you. Send someone specific to call emergency services, naming them out loud, because a general shout to a crowd produces a crowd that all assume somebody else is dialing.
Once the person is out, check breathing. If they are not breathing normally, start CPR and send for an AED. If you have never been shown how, a CPR Class takes a few hours and is the difference between watching and helping.
Frequently asked questions about signs of drowning
What are the main signs of drowning?
The head is low with the mouth at water level, the eyes are glassy or closed, the body is vertical with no kicking, and the arms press down at the sides. There is no shouting and no waving. The person looks quiet and upright rather than distressed.
Can a drowning person call for help?
No. Speech requires breathing out, and someone in the instinctive drowning response is using every breath to get air. The mouth is at the waterline and sinks below it between breaths. Expecting to hear a call for help is the single most common reason drownings go unnoticed.
How quickly does drowning happen?
The surface struggle lasts roughly twenty to sixty seconds in an adult and often less in a young child. That is the entire window in which a rescue can start from the surface, which is why supervision has to be continuous rather than a glance every so often.
Does drowning look different in children?
Yes, mainly because it is faster and quieter. Small children have less body mass to keep them up and tire sooner, so the vertical struggling phase can be very brief. A child can slip under without a sound in the time it takes to answer a text message.
