Jun 10, 2011 5 min read

Television might kill you or someone you care about.

It isn’t doing so maliciously — this isn’t the plot to some terrible schlocky horror film about evil flat-screens — but, rather, television is to blame because it lies to us.

As much as we’d like to think so, violent crimes can’t be solved or mysterious diseases cured in under an hour. (And our dogs won’t alert us that Timmy is in the well, either.) These are mostly innocuous examples of the misconceptions that are perpetuated by popular shows and movies.

But as summer gets into full swing and people young and old start to flock to pools, creeks and lakes to cool down, it’s important to remember that when it comes to drowning, the real thing looks nothing like it is on television. And knowing the difference can be a matter of life and death.

Don’t believe me? Quick, picture in your head someone drowning.

What do you imagine? Flailing arms. Splashing. Cries for help. Dramatic struggling to stay above the water line. It’s all standard television fare. And it’s completely bunk.

Mario Vittone, a former Coast Guard rescue swimmer, marine safety specialist and writer, tackled the misconceptions of drowning in a blog post for maritime professionals: “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.”

In a separate article with Francesco A. Pia, Ph.D, in the Coast Guard’s “On Scene” magazine, Vittone writes that someone who is legitimately drowning is physiologically incapable of performing the “typical” drowning response.

Take the most obvious example: yelling for help. If someone is in serious danger of drowning, their body is frantically struggling to get oxygen. Because the respiratory system is designed for breathing first and speech second, if you can’t get enough air, your body is going to focus on that first — it isn’t going to bother wasting resources allowing you to call out.

Similarly, the classic image of someone waving their arms above their head isn’t going to happen either because drowning people cannot control their arm movements.

“Nature instinctively forces them to extend their arms laterally and press down on the water’s surface,” Pia and Vittone write, to try to get their bodies lifted high enough to get their mouths above the surface.

On top of that, someone who is drowning can’t perform voluntary movements like moving toward a rescuer or reaching out for a life preserver or floatation device. Simply put, your body has one task — trying to get a breath — and everything else is shut off.

Someone who is drowning can’t alert those around them — or save themselves. (Of course, all of this isn’t to say someone who is yelling for help or thrashing about isn’t in trouble. It’s just important to realize that most drowning deaths are undramatic affairs.)

Here’s the even scarier part: not only is drowning quite difficult to discern, the window of rescue is incredibly short. “…[D]rowning people can only struggle on the surface of the water from 20 to 60 seconds before submersion occurs,” Vittone writes.

If you have children, or will be swimming somewhere there are children present, this message is even more vital. According to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, drowning is the second-leading cause of unintentional injury-related death for children younger than age 14. (Vehicle accidents are the primary cause; put your child in a car seat or buckle them up.)

And don’t think that just because there are adults present that children can’t drown. “Most young children who drowned in pools were last seen in the home, had been out of sight less than five minutes, and were in the care of one or both parents at the time,” according to the CDC website on drowning.

Citing CDC statistics, Vittone writes that just about half of the children who drown this year will be within 25 yards of a parent or adult. “In ten percent of those drownings, the adult will actually watch them do it, having no idea it is happening,” he writes.

(The biggest thing to remember with children, he says, is that children playing in water make noise; if they’re quiet, make sure they’re OK. Don’t assume everything is fine.)

So, if you’re going to be by the pool or lake this summer (and I hope you are), pay attention to what’s going on in the water. Be on the lookout for someone whose head is low in the water, with their mouth at water level, with eyes closed or staring blankly. They won’t be doing anything dramatic, and they might very well be fine. But don’t take the chance; ask them if they’re OK, and if they don’t respond or just give you a blank stare, don’t delay.

You might have less than 30 seconds to save their life.

And, for the love of Pete, if you’re going boating, wear a life jacket. I don’t care how stupid you think it makes you look. According to the CDC, among those who drowned in boating incidents nine out of 10 were not wearing life jackets.

Brandon Szuminsky can be reached at bszuminsky@heraldstandard.com.