Until last week, I had never heard of “dry drowning.” I happened to read an article about a little boy who died from dry drowning. I told my kids about it and we talked about how unbelievable and tragic it was. In no way minimizing what had happened, our lives continued on as normal.
Little did we know how this information would come back into the forefront of our minds.
On Saturday, we were at an indoor pool for an “end of the year” banquet for the team girls from the gym. While playing in the pool, M. and another girl were pulling each other around on a pool noodle. All of a sudden, M. started coughing extremely hard. She got out of the pool and came to me, but she didn’t look quite right. One of the lifeguards came over and asked her if she was okay. M. was very slow in responding. She could not catch her breath and was still coughing to the point of gagging. She was a little pale in the face, except for around the eyes, which had a purplish red tinge to them. She kept trying to sit down, but the life guard would not let her. She bent M. forward while forcefully pounding on her back. M. kept coughing quite hard and had some water coming out of her mouth and nose. By this point, we had 3 lifeguards involved. In a very calm fashion, they got my attention (I had been trying to calm M. down and keep her focused while trying to find out what happened) and asked me if I had heard of dry drowning. I asked if that was what happened to that little boy at the water park and they nodded. They looked at me and waited to see if I understood what they were saying. I asked them if they thought that I should take her to get looked at. All three said yes. (BTW – they were trying to communicate with as little words as possible so as not to panic M.)
We then left for an urgent care center nearby. They took X-rays of her lungs. While they did not see anything immediately, they mentioned the fact that it can take several hours for the lungs to have a reaction and start filling. They then transported us by ambulance to the main Children’s close to down town. They had to observe her for several hours and take more X-rays after 4 hours. She apparently, with the help of the wonderful lifeguards of course, had been able to either get all or enough of the water out of her lungs that they did not have a reaction. Praise the Lord!
We were told to watch her for the next 24 hours. That has now passed and I think we can start to relax again. She is still quite sore in her sternum and her lungs.
Any of you parents that visit a pool regularly, please be aware of this situation. The paramedics were very reassuring that all seemed okay, but they also told me that it was a very good thing that I brought her in. They have seen similar situations with not as good of an outcome as ours. Please click on the link in the first paragraph to read more info on warning signs. Also Google “dry drowning” and “delayed drowning.”
All I keep thinking of is what if there had not been anything in the news about this lately? Would the lifeguards have been as conscientious? Would they have been less aggressive? If so, would all of the water gotten out of her lungs? If not, would she have been a news story?
Again, I ask, Irony? Or intervention?
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