WEBVTT - How Drowning Works 0:00:01.120 --> 0:00:04.560 Welcome to Stuff You Should Know from how Stuff Works 0:00:04.600 --> 0:00:14.120 dot com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark, 0:00:14.200 --> 0:00:18.360 and there's Charles W Chuck Bryant and Jerry's over there, 0:00:18.360 --> 0:00:23.120 so that makes this stuff you Should Know? Hi, how 0:00:23.120 --> 0:00:26.920 are you feeling kind of upbeat? Positive? Well? I will 0:00:26.960 --> 0:00:31.160 say that this topic, I felt like I was having 0:00:31.160 --> 0:00:35.360 a panic attack researching and reading this stuff me too, 0:00:35.520 --> 0:00:37.239 like I had noticed I was. I felt like I 0:00:37.240 --> 0:00:40.720 couldn't breathe at some points. Yeah, it was, and we 0:00:40.800 --> 0:00:42.800 covered a little bit of this and Worse Ways to 0:00:42.880 --> 0:00:48.280 Die many years ago. But boy, oh boy, drowning is 0:00:49.360 --> 0:00:52.519 no picnic. No, it's not. And one of the things 0:00:52.600 --> 0:00:54.520 that I've always heard about drowning is that like it 0:00:54.560 --> 0:00:57.360 was actually a very peaceful experience. I don't think that's 0:00:57.400 --> 0:00:59.880 the case. Yeah, I don't. I don't like obviously, no 0:01:00.080 --> 0:01:02.440 one can say for certain, but it doesn't seem to 0:01:02.480 --> 0:01:05.680 be no um at all, and it seems to be like, 0:01:05.840 --> 0:01:08.600 actually not a good way to go. Well, actually, I 0:01:08.600 --> 0:01:11.560 mean you probably could if you um. And this is 0:01:11.600 --> 0:01:15.080 a this is giving something away early, but one of 0:01:15.080 --> 0:01:20.880 the possible outcomes aside from death and morbidity, which is 0:01:21.240 --> 0:01:24.360 you develop an injury or disability because of what happened. 0:01:24.959 --> 0:01:28.600 Aren't you on record for hating that word morbidity? Yeah, 0:01:28.720 --> 0:01:31.880 I don't know. I don't like it. Well, my apologies. Uh, 0:01:31.880 --> 0:01:34.960 and no morbidity. So you could ask someone who suffered 0:01:35.000 --> 0:01:39.399 drowning with no morbidity, like, was it peaceful? And they'll 0:01:39.400 --> 0:01:43.199 probably be like, nope, Well that's where I got that from. 0:01:43.360 --> 0:01:45.920 Was you know online? If you go and you got 0:01:45.920 --> 0:01:47.320 to take it all with a grain of salt, because 0:01:47.360 --> 0:01:49.440 there's plenty of fourteen year old who like to just 0:01:49.480 --> 0:01:53.680 make stuff up. But there are you know, threads on 0:01:53.800 --> 0:01:58.680 Reddit and other other places that basically are are supposedly 0:01:58.720 --> 0:02:02.560 people who have survived outing, and I didn't find any 0:02:02.680 --> 0:02:05.120 that were like, it was actually very peaceful. My brain 0:02:05.160 --> 0:02:07.680 flooded with endorphins and I was ready to go into 0:02:07.680 --> 0:02:10.880 the light. Instead, it was more like, you know, I 0:02:10.960 --> 0:02:14.160 saw one that said it burned like lava, which I mean, 0:02:14.200 --> 0:02:16.399 if you think about it, you know, if you've ever 0:02:16.520 --> 0:02:19.480 had something go down the wrong pipe or whatever, how 0:02:19.600 --> 0:02:23.280 much that hurts your chest. Well, Chuck, we're here to 0:02:23.280 --> 0:02:27.040 tell everybody that what you experienced where you took a 0:02:27.080 --> 0:02:28.920 drink of coke and it went down the wrong pipe. 0:02:29.280 --> 0:02:32.280 That was not that didn't go anywhere near your lungs. 0:02:32.960 --> 0:02:35.239 That was the least of what can happen to you. 0:02:35.280 --> 0:02:37.800 And that was it just hit your epiglottis, which is 0:02:37.840 --> 0:02:43.239 that flap that converts your trachea into your esophagus. Right, Yeah, 0:02:43.240 --> 0:02:45.480 that flap. That's like sometimes I want to work and 0:02:45.520 --> 0:02:47.880 sometimes I want to scare you to death. Right, But 0:02:48.240 --> 0:02:52.959 zero zero coke went into your lungs and that happened 0:02:53.000 --> 0:02:55.920 that that so imagine how bad that is. That was 0:02:55.960 --> 0:02:59.040 just your epiglots. It actually gets way way worse when 0:02:59.040 --> 0:03:02.120 you actually are drowning. And you you said something that 0:03:02.160 --> 0:03:04.200 we really need to point out here, because there's a 0:03:04.840 --> 0:03:07.839 for as long as people have been drowning, basically, yeah, 0:03:07.880 --> 0:03:10.920 since people have been people, right exactly, So for as 0:03:10.960 --> 0:03:13.800 long as people have been drowning, we still have only 0:03:13.919 --> 0:03:19.880 very recently begun to make universal definitions of what drowning is. Yeah, 0:03:19.880 --> 0:03:26.079 it's two thousand two, the World Congress of Drowning. That's 0:03:26.080 --> 0:03:29.720 a thing. Then they at least had the good sense 0:03:29.760 --> 0:03:33.320 to hold it in Amsterdam at least so they could 0:03:33.320 --> 0:03:38.400 get their good time on afterwards. After the meetings, they're awful. 0:03:38.760 --> 0:03:42.640 But what they did there was they decided, hey, we 0:03:42.720 --> 0:03:47.680 need to really codify this because three and fifty thousand 0:03:47.760 --> 0:03:51.480 people a year die and it's the third most common 0:03:51.840 --> 0:03:54.880 cause of accidental death around the world. So let's like 0:03:55.000 --> 0:03:58.080 really kind of classify this stuff. So everyone's on the 0:03:58.080 --> 0:04:01.240 same page moving forward, Yeah, because everyone wasn't on the 0:04:01.240 --> 0:04:05.160 same page, and actually, if you follow media reports, people 0:04:05.200 --> 0:04:07.640 still aren't on the same page. There's a lot of 0:04:07.680 --> 0:04:11.600 a lot of um uncleared terminology that the medical community 0:04:11.640 --> 0:04:15.560 doesn't recognize but that the media uses pretty frequently. Um. 0:04:15.600 --> 0:04:21.640 There's pretty widespread misunderstanding that drowning is not death. It's 0:04:21.640 --> 0:04:24.680 a way you can die, but it's actually a specific 0:04:24.760 --> 0:04:29.479 type of injury that starts with your epiglottis as we'll 0:04:29.480 --> 0:04:33.640 see um or your larynx. I'm sorry, but it's it's 0:04:33.760 --> 0:04:36.800 it's like an injury that can happen to you that 0:04:36.839 --> 0:04:39.920 you can die from, but you can actually have drowned 0:04:40.160 --> 0:04:44.800 and survived. Yeah, that's you know, that's very misleading because 0:04:44.800 --> 0:04:49.560 that's the the actual definition. But in in everyday parlance, 0:04:50.320 --> 0:04:53.200 if you say, you know, I went to the pool 0:04:53.279 --> 0:04:57.080 last weekend and my child drowned, and someone said oh 0:04:57.120 --> 0:05:00.840 my god, you know another fine, right, Like, it's not 0:05:01.960 --> 0:05:04.159 it's not a very fair thing to say to to 0:05:04.240 --> 0:05:07.839 a friend. No it's not. But if you're following the 0:05:07.880 --> 0:05:11.200 definition of the two thousand two World Congress of Drowning, 0:05:11.760 --> 0:05:14.760 that would be the right thing for you to say. Yeah, 0:05:14.760 --> 0:05:18.120 but that that kind of pedantry and just everyday conversation. 0:05:18.760 --> 0:05:21.039 You should lead by saying I had a close call. 0:05:21.960 --> 0:05:25.520 My child technically drowned according to the World Congress of Drowning, right, 0:05:26.040 --> 0:05:29.080 and then pushing, fine, push the glasses up your nose. 0:05:29.720 --> 0:05:34.400 It's just exactly so, Um, I gave away a little 0:05:34.440 --> 0:05:39.040 bit here. With drowning. The whole process starts when water 0:05:39.480 --> 0:05:43.680 or liquid comes in contact with your larynx, your voice box. 0:05:44.520 --> 0:05:51.840 That something as far as human evolution goes something about that, Philips, 0:05:52.320 --> 0:05:59.720 Your reptilian brain out and you're your motor takes over, like, 0:05:59.760 --> 0:06:02.800 your motor instincts take over, and there's very little you 0:06:02.839 --> 0:06:05.599 can do from that point on as far as conscious 0:06:05.640 --> 0:06:08.440 thought and movement. Yeah, I mean, we'll we'll get to 0:06:08.520 --> 0:06:11.760 that last part later. But um, you're totally right, man, 0:06:11.880 --> 0:06:15.320 Like your body is trying to do one thing and 0:06:15.360 --> 0:06:19.680 that is survived this experience. Um, And, like I said, 0:06:19.680 --> 0:06:21.960 we'll get in a little more of what drowning looks like. 0:06:22.040 --> 0:06:26.080 But during drowning, you're right that that first contact with 0:06:26.200 --> 0:06:30.800 water and the larynx, you have that gasp initially, and 0:06:30.839 --> 0:06:34.160 then you you are in charge for a short time 0:06:34.200 --> 0:06:37.440 because you try and hold your breath voluntarily, But then 0:06:37.480 --> 0:06:44.160 your larynx just starts spasming. And Hi, Hi hypoxemia, hypoxemia, 0:06:45.320 --> 0:06:55.280 hypo xmia, hypoxemia, hypoxemia, Bet hypoxemia, No, hypoxemia, hypoxemia, that's 0:06:55.320 --> 0:07:01.760 what I said, right, Oh my god, hypoxemia. It's funny. 0:07:01.760 --> 0:07:04.240 I looked up a bunch of word pronunciations today, but 0:07:04.320 --> 0:07:06.800 that one that just flew right by it. I'll tell 0:07:06.839 --> 0:07:12.520 you when I've got down is kinsieta. Yeah, that's that's next. Right. 0:07:13.200 --> 0:07:18.200 How about hypo e simia. Sure, Basically what that is 0:07:18.240 --> 0:07:22.160 is decreased levels of oxygen in your bloodstream. Your body 0:07:22.200 --> 0:07:25.320 is trying to fight that. Right, So your larynx, whether 0:07:25.400 --> 0:07:28.720 you like it or not, your larynx has closed. You're 0:07:28.760 --> 0:07:31.640 not breathing, You're holding your breath because your larynx is 0:07:31.680 --> 0:07:35.160 trying to prevent liquid from going into your lungs. Right, 0:07:35.760 --> 0:07:40.360 And So as this is going on, you're losing oxygen concentration, 0:07:40.400 --> 0:07:42.000 and your lungs you're having a build up of c 0:07:42.200 --> 0:07:46.080 O two. And then and I got this from a 0:07:46.160 --> 0:07:50.760 reference to a passage from the book The Perfect Storm. 0:07:51.560 --> 0:07:57.440 But supposedly studies have shown that after about eighty seven seconds, 0:07:58.360 --> 0:08:02.040 your your body says is okay, to hell with this. Um, 0:08:02.080 --> 0:08:04.760 I'm I can't spasm any longer. I'm gonna try to 0:08:04.800 --> 0:08:08.840 take a breath. If you happen to be underwater, then 0:08:09.160 --> 0:08:13.000 you've just taken in water. And now a whole different 0:08:13.040 --> 0:08:16.400 set of events is happening. Right, So you're already starting 0:08:16.440 --> 0:08:20.720 to um, to to become sluggish, to lose consciousness a 0:08:20.760 --> 0:08:23.000 little bit from that lack of oxygen because you haven't 0:08:23.000 --> 0:08:26.080 been breathing for say, the last almost minute and a half. 0:08:26.760 --> 0:08:29.800 But now you've taken in water onto your lungs, and 0:08:29.960 --> 0:08:32.040 like I said, this this changes things and it makes 0:08:32.080 --> 0:08:35.400 it way way worse. Well. Yeah, and before that even happens, 0:08:35.960 --> 0:08:44.800 your body becomes something called acidotic. How would you pronounce that? Uh? 0:08:44.960 --> 0:08:48.600 That probably that way. I would actually listen to that one. 0:08:48.640 --> 0:08:51.839 That's okay, what is it? It's acidotic? Oh? It is, Yeah, 0:08:52.040 --> 0:08:55.520 I actually probably would have made it a long oh yeah, 0:08:55.600 --> 0:08:58.600 no longer apparently, Okay, well thanks for going the extra 0:08:58.679 --> 0:09:01.200 mile on that one. I had to make up for 0:09:01.240 --> 0:09:05.760 the last one. Um. But that's basically when like, if 0:09:05.800 --> 0:09:09.280 that happens, it can disrupt the electrical you're you're you're 0:09:09.320 --> 0:09:12.920 wiring to your heart and you can go into cardiac arrest. 0:09:13.000 --> 0:09:16.760 And that's sort of near the beginning of this process, right, 0:09:16.840 --> 0:09:20.400 So just just bookmark that, everybody, because all of this 0:09:20.480 --> 0:09:24.760 is happening before your laying stop spasming and you open 0:09:24.880 --> 0:09:28.000 up your airway and take a deep breath, and then 0:09:28.080 --> 0:09:30.400 you're you If you happen to be underwater or your 0:09:30.440 --> 0:09:33.360 mouth is just below water level, then you've just taken 0:09:33.360 --> 0:09:35.760 in a bunch of water and your lungs not good. 0:09:36.200 --> 0:09:38.760 So what happens when you take water into your lungs 0:09:38.800 --> 0:09:42.000 is when you look at your um, your lungs if 0:09:42.080 --> 0:09:44.000 you can, if you can just peer at your lungs 0:09:44.000 --> 0:09:46.320 everyone for a second, you're going to find that they 0:09:46.360 --> 0:09:52.240 are actually branching increasingly smaller tubes. Right. Yeah, this is 0:09:52.240 --> 0:09:56.720 like elementary school science, Like everyone learned about the bronchi 0:09:56.880 --> 0:10:01.760 the bronchioles that alveoli's. That was all kind of elementary 0:10:01.800 --> 0:10:04.320 school stuff, right. The point is that the in the 0:10:04.360 --> 0:10:08.520 alveolis or the alveola, the little tiny air sacks where 0:10:08.520 --> 0:10:13.080 you exchange oxygen and carbon dioxide with the capillaries that 0:10:13.120 --> 0:10:17.320 bring blood to your lungs, there's a little something called surfactant, 0:10:17.440 --> 0:10:20.280 and it's this chemical coating around your little tiny air 0:10:20.320 --> 0:10:24.320 sacks that allow them to open and close, which pumps 0:10:24.360 --> 0:10:27.200 the oxygen and carbon dioxide in and out right. It 0:10:27.240 --> 0:10:30.280 allows for gas exchange. It's a very key part of 0:10:30.280 --> 0:10:33.240 the whole system of staying alive. Yeah, because if you're 0:10:33.280 --> 0:10:37.760 surfactin isn't working, then that alveola can't or alveolas can't 0:10:37.840 --> 0:10:41.520 open or close, and so you're not breathing because that's 0:10:41.520 --> 0:10:43.800 really where the rubber meets the road when you breathe. 0:10:44.200 --> 0:10:48.040 So if the surfactant is damaged, you can't breathe. And 0:10:48.080 --> 0:10:50.840 when you take water into your lungs, it goes to 0:10:50.960 --> 0:10:54.200 the end to those air sacks and it, depending on 0:10:54.240 --> 0:10:57.360 the type of water, it messes with the surfactant one 0:10:57.400 --> 0:11:00.200 way or another, and all of a sudden, now you 0:11:00.240 --> 0:11:05.079 are not exchanging um oxygen and carbon dioxide, which you 0:11:05.160 --> 0:11:07.559 weren't doing very well already for the last minute and 0:11:07.600 --> 0:11:10.560 a half, but now the water is totally screwing up 0:11:10.559 --> 0:11:12.800 that jam. Well. Yeah, in the case of fresh water, 0:11:13.000 --> 0:11:14.760 and this is something I didn't know, it is different 0:11:15.320 --> 0:11:18.640 depending on saltwater fresh water. But freshwater, if you're in 0:11:18.640 --> 0:11:21.160 a swimming pool or a lake or something, it actually 0:11:21.200 --> 0:11:26.160 destroys that surfactant and the alveoli collapse, right, they're just 0:11:26.240 --> 0:11:30.400 kind of destroyed. Uh. And saltwater, Uh, it actually doesn't 0:11:30.440 --> 0:11:33.440 destroy the surfactant, but it washes it away, which to 0:11:33.480 --> 0:11:38.040 me is sort of like splitting hairs. It makes the 0:11:38.080 --> 0:11:42.160 surfactant um it doesn't work anymore, no matter which way 0:11:42.200 --> 0:11:45.520 slice it right exactly. And so there's um a couple 0:11:45.559 --> 0:11:50.280 of different, two real differences between taking in freshwater and 0:11:50.280 --> 0:11:53.680 taking in saltwater in your looks, because freshwater bears a 0:11:53.720 --> 0:11:57.120 pretty strong resemblance to the water in your body and 0:11:57.160 --> 0:12:00.640 specifically in your blood. When that water in your lungs, 0:12:00.920 --> 0:12:06.320 it actually passes very easily from your lungs into your bloodstream. 0:12:06.360 --> 0:12:10.400 And so what happens is the the dilution, the concentration 0:12:10.440 --> 0:12:15.520 of water in your blood. Um, it becomes overrun with water. 0:12:16.120 --> 0:12:18.880 So where you end up. I saw apparently one World 0:12:18.920 --> 0:12:23.440 War two study found that people's blood or animals blood, 0:12:24.200 --> 0:12:26.520 which I hate to think of how they found this out, 0:12:26.800 --> 0:12:29.440 you know how they found that out. But animals blood 0:12:29.480 --> 0:12:33.240 within three minutes had an equal part of water and 0:12:33.440 --> 0:12:37.080 blood or whatever is not water in the blood within 0:12:37.160 --> 0:12:40.000 three minutes, which is way more of a dilution than 0:12:40.040 --> 0:12:43.959 we normally have. So you've gone from not breathing very 0:12:44.000 --> 0:12:47.400 well because you're holding your breath to suddenly not only 0:12:47.440 --> 0:12:50.360 are you not exchanging air, your blood is diluted within 0:12:50.440 --> 0:12:52.959 like three minutes. In a fresh water drowning, yeah, you're 0:12:53.000 --> 0:12:57.600 really disrupting the balance of of your blood and the 0:12:57.640 --> 0:13:00.280 water in your body. Everything is just thrown out whack. 0:13:01.200 --> 0:13:04.360 And then with saltwater, something else different happens to um 0:13:04.520 --> 0:13:07.960 your that that saltiness in the water in your lungs 0:13:08.280 --> 0:13:11.560 actually draws water out of your blood, so that your 0:13:11.559 --> 0:13:14.880 blood becomes more concentrated rather than more dilute if you 0:13:14.960 --> 0:13:17.800 drown in saltwater. The upshot of all of this is 0:13:17.960 --> 0:13:21.320 you are in big trouble once water hits your lungs. Yeah, 0:13:21.320 --> 0:13:24.520 in the case of saltwater, again in three minutes and 0:13:24.920 --> 0:13:26.800 you know what's happening to the animals because they called 0:13:26.800 --> 0:13:31.760 it experimental animals. So in other words, they drowned animals. 0:13:32.679 --> 0:13:35.520 I was hoping to dance around that, but yeah, that's 0:13:35.520 --> 0:13:38.040 what they did. That's the reality. Uh. In three minutes 0:13:38.040 --> 0:13:43.280 with saltwater, experimental animals lost of their normal, normal water 0:13:43.400 --> 0:13:46.840 volume in their blood. Yeah, it's just thickened, which can't 0:13:46.840 --> 0:13:49.880 feel good. The thing is, is it took. It takes 0:13:49.880 --> 0:13:52.400 like from when I saw eight minutes to die. This 0:13:52.480 --> 0:13:55.000 is actually as as bad as that sounds. This is 0:13:55.040 --> 0:13:59.520 actually a less quickly fatal process than what happens to 0:13:59.559 --> 0:14:03.120 you with ushwater in your lungs. But get this, Chuck, 0:14:03.679 --> 0:14:08.080 here's where drowning gets really odd. You can die of 0:14:08.160 --> 0:14:12.520 drowning without a single drop of water ever touching your lungs. 0:14:14.760 --> 0:14:16.480 That sounds like a good place to take a break. 0:14:17.040 --> 0:14:20.000 Oh are we going to cliffhanger? This? It's just mamma, jamma. 0:14:20.080 --> 0:14:21.920 I think we should hang it off the cliff. Okay, 0:14:22.000 --> 0:14:45.280 let's do it all right, We'll be right back, man, Chuck. 0:14:45.320 --> 0:14:47.800 Good call, because even I'm like a little on the 0:14:47.880 --> 0:14:49.560 edge of my seat and I know it's coming next, 0:14:49.640 --> 0:14:53.320 and you know how this thing ends. Yeah, well, you're 0:14:53.320 --> 0:14:59.320 exactly right. You don't have to uh like that can happen. 0:14:59.360 --> 0:15:02.280 But to d round and die, you don't need to 0:15:02.320 --> 0:15:05.920 be the TV or movie drowning where you're where you're 0:15:05.920 --> 0:15:08.840 floating in the water, you're fully submerged, right, you went 0:15:08.880 --> 0:15:11.600 down with the ship or something like that. Yeah, I 0:15:11.640 --> 0:15:13.960 mean there's They used to call it dry drowning in 0:15:14.080 --> 0:15:16.960 in the media. They still call it dry drowning. It 0:15:17.040 --> 0:15:20.040 was coined in the nineteen seventies. But those are drowning 0:15:20.120 --> 0:15:23.800 deaths in which the larynx spasmed from exposure to water, 0:15:24.400 --> 0:15:28.360 but they died from asphyxiation. No water entered the lungs, 0:15:28.840 --> 0:15:31.520 and it's very it makes sense to call it dry drowning. 0:15:31.520 --> 0:15:34.760 But the CDC and everyone else basically said this, this 0:15:35.280 --> 0:15:38.720 is just drowning. It's drowning. Just because there's not water 0:15:38.760 --> 0:15:41.080 in your lungs doesn't mean you didn't drown, right, because 0:15:41.200 --> 0:15:44.480 whether it's the water in your lungs or the um, 0:15:44.680 --> 0:15:48.600 the fact that you haven't been breathing, you're dying from asphyxiation, 0:15:49.000 --> 0:15:52.600 and it's a water related asphyxiation, right, correct, But it 0:15:52.640 --> 0:15:54.600 doesn't have to be water in your lungs. But that 0:15:54.640 --> 0:15:59.000 happens to something like ten to people who um, who 0:15:59.240 --> 0:16:02.160 die of drown Yeah, they don't have any any water 0:16:02.240 --> 0:16:04.760 in their lungs whatsoever. They just they died before their 0:16:04.840 --> 0:16:08.000 layering stopped spasm ing. Yeah, and there's there have been 0:16:08.000 --> 0:16:10.320 some really sad cases. This one this referenced in the 0:16:10.400 --> 0:16:14.440 article you sent just last year. In two thousand seventeen, 0:16:14.480 --> 0:16:16.960 a four year old boy in Texas was knocked over 0:16:17.000 --> 0:16:19.800 by wave just playing out in the ocean, like knee 0:16:19.840 --> 0:16:23.400 deep in water. His head did go under for a 0:16:23.400 --> 0:16:26.280 few seconds, but dad brings him out of the water. 0:16:26.520 --> 0:16:29.720 The kid recovers, He gets smacked on the butt and 0:16:29.760 --> 0:16:33.000 goes off in plays and everything seems fine. Over the 0:16:33.080 --> 0:16:35.400 next few days, he um. They think he has the 0:16:35.480 --> 0:16:38.280 stomach flu. He complains of a pain in his shoulder, 0:16:39.120 --> 0:16:41.000 and the parents did not get him to the doctor 0:16:41.040 --> 0:16:44.080 fast enough and he died in his sleep. And then 0:16:44.320 --> 0:16:47.920 doctors found a very small amount of water in his lungs. Yeah, 0:16:47.920 --> 0:16:51.560 apparently it doesn't take much something like um that most 0:16:51.880 --> 0:16:54.960 drowning victims have something like four ccs per kilogram of 0:16:55.000 --> 0:16:57.520 water in their lungs. So if you're a kid who 0:16:57.560 --> 0:17:01.240 weighs fifty pounds, that's three ounces of water. Her right 0:17:01.280 --> 0:17:04.760 to die from that, right. But the thing that scared everybody, 0:17:05.119 --> 0:17:07.720 scared the but Jesus out of parents everywhere about this 0:17:07.760 --> 0:17:12.439 poor kid named Frankie Delgado. Um, he died like days 0:17:12.520 --> 0:17:15.960 after he had his drowning incident. Right, No one knew 0:17:16.000 --> 0:17:18.200 that could happen. And this is one of the ways 0:17:18.240 --> 0:17:20.280 the media is not helping things. They call this dry 0:17:20.359 --> 0:17:23.639 drowning too. That was never even called dry drowning. This 0:17:23.680 --> 0:17:26.359 one is called secondary drowning. But again, if you go 0:17:26.400 --> 0:17:28.720 to like the c d C or the World Health Organization, 0:17:28.800 --> 0:17:31.560 they're like those those don't exist. Stop calling him that 0:17:32.000 --> 0:17:35.440 it's it's drowning and you can actually die of drowning 0:17:36.080 --> 0:17:40.160 days afterward. But the thing that was really misreported about 0:17:40.200 --> 0:17:43.480 Frankie Delgado and then other kids like him, is that 0:17:43.880 --> 0:17:47.000 it gives the impression that, you know, Dad picked him up, 0:17:47.040 --> 0:17:49.159 spanked him on the bottom, and he went along his 0:17:49.240 --> 0:17:51.119 way and he was totally fine. Then all of a 0:17:51.160 --> 0:17:55.679 sudden drops dead three days later. That's not how it works. You. 0:17:56.000 --> 0:17:59.520 The kids starts, their health starts to decline, and usually 0:18:00.040 --> 0:18:02.439 in cases where this is happening, where it's like a 0:18:02.520 --> 0:18:08.320 delayed drowning death. Um. They their health declines very obviously 0:18:08.680 --> 0:18:12.320 within two or three hours of the incident, and it's 0:18:12.359 --> 0:18:17.480 really bad. It's like they become sluggish because they're becoming hypoxic. Um, 0:18:17.560 --> 0:18:20.119 they throw up a lot, they vomit a lot, they 0:18:20.160 --> 0:18:25.240 might defecate themselves. Um, they just their behavior changes. It's 0:18:25.359 --> 0:18:27.879 very obvious that something's very wrong with them. But the 0:18:27.960 --> 0:18:31.000 problem is his Most parents don't say, oh, yeah, my 0:18:31.080 --> 0:18:33.159 kid took in some water in the pool. It's a 0:18:33.280 --> 0:18:36.920 day before, and they don't think to to They just think, 0:18:36.960 --> 0:18:39.920 like Frankie Delgado's parents did that, it's a stomach bug 0:18:40.000 --> 0:18:42.399 or something like that, when in fact they're actually dying 0:18:42.440 --> 0:18:44.800 from drowning right in front of their very eyes. Yeah. 0:18:44.840 --> 0:18:47.120 It's like the the head injury that you die of 0:18:47.240 --> 0:18:51.439 a week later, um, because of whatever, some kind of 0:18:51.520 --> 0:18:55.320 internal hemorrhaging that you don't even know what's going on. Right, Yeah, 0:18:55.359 --> 0:18:59.679 it is very much like that, right, yes, right, she 0:18:59.760 --> 0:19:02.720 died like a ski accident, right, yeah. Natasha Richardson and 0:19:02.760 --> 0:19:04.960 I I didn't look it up, but I know it 0:19:05.000 --> 0:19:08.600 was it was not that day. Oh, I didn't know that. 0:19:08.640 --> 0:19:11.040 I don't know how many days later it was. But 0:19:11.200 --> 0:19:13.800 the same kind of thing where UM, there's a there's 0:19:13.840 --> 0:19:16.200 something going on in the body because of an incident 0:19:16.520 --> 0:19:19.359 that you don't realize that's going on. And in UH, 0:19:19.359 --> 0:19:22.520 in this kid's case, I think his uh, he had 0:19:23.080 --> 0:19:27.600 a DIMA. Right, his lung tissues started um swelling right swell, 0:19:27.720 --> 0:19:30.000 and they could no longer like a collapse, a little 0:19:30.000 --> 0:19:32.600 a v O like collapse that the gas exchange wasn't 0:19:32.640 --> 0:19:34.920 going on, and so he had a decrease in oxygen 0:19:34.960 --> 0:19:37.320 and an increase in CEO two. And that's what you 0:19:37.440 --> 0:19:41.120 ultimately die from from drowning right, Right, But you can 0:19:41.160 --> 0:19:46.719 also get injured UM. Brain damage is usually the major complication. 0:19:46.920 --> 0:19:49.960 If you don't die from drowning UM, you can have 0:19:50.000 --> 0:19:53.240 that tissue damage in your lungs. You can get pneumonia 0:19:54.040 --> 0:19:59.120 or something called a r d S acute respiratory distress syndrome. Right. 0:19:59.600 --> 0:20:02.479 And there's also usually a code well not usually, but 0:20:02.520 --> 0:20:06.919 it's frequently there's a code morbidity with a drowning UM, 0:20:06.920 --> 0:20:09.200 which is like a head or neck injury, a spinal 0:20:09.240 --> 0:20:12.359 injury that if you dive into the shallow into the 0:20:12.400 --> 0:20:15.040 pool and you break your neck you're gonna start drowning 0:20:15.160 --> 0:20:18.320 like immediately because you just lost consciousness and you're underwater. 0:20:19.160 --> 0:20:23.240 Um So there's, as we'll see in talking about treating drowning, 0:20:23.280 --> 0:20:26.639 you wanna you want to be aware that there's a 0:20:26.680 --> 0:20:29.520 good possibility that the person's neck is not quite right. 0:20:30.880 --> 0:20:34.439 Um So, here's one other thing that I knew before, 0:20:34.520 --> 0:20:36.600 but I had learned at one point and it really 0:20:36.640 --> 0:20:41.760 opened my eyes. Every every representation of drowning I've ever 0:20:41.800 --> 0:20:45.320 seen in any movie, on every TV show, in every book, 0:20:45.800 --> 0:20:50.640 in every song about drowning, there they they got it wrong. 0:20:50.840 --> 0:20:54.600 It's just wrong. It doesn't look anything like what we've 0:20:54.640 --> 0:20:59.320 all been led to believe. It looks like or sounds like, well, yeah, 0:20:59.359 --> 0:21:02.200 I mean that is true if you are actually drowning. 0:21:03.080 --> 0:21:05.159 But what you're talking about that you usually see in 0:21:05.200 --> 0:21:07.439 the movies if they end up getting pulled out of 0:21:07.440 --> 0:21:11.399 water and they're fine. It's just called aquatic distress. So 0:21:11.440 --> 0:21:15.199 when you're splashing around and yelling, you aren't drowning at 0:21:15.240 --> 0:21:19.520 that point. No, you're you could call it pre drowning. Yeah, 0:21:19.520 --> 0:21:22.960 it's aquatic distress. That means you're you can't swim, you're panicking, 0:21:23.560 --> 0:21:26.200 and you feel like I'm in big trouble, So you're 0:21:26.200 --> 0:21:28.800 waving your arms and screaming when you actually start drowning. 0:21:29.560 --> 0:21:34.520 This guy named Francesco A Pia, he's a PhD. He 0:21:34.680 --> 0:21:38.000 defined what's called the instinctive drowning response, which is nothing 0:21:38.040 --> 0:21:40.520 like you see in the movies. It's very quiet, and 0:21:40.560 --> 0:21:44.040 your body, like we mentioned earlier, your body's instinct kicks 0:21:44.040 --> 0:21:47.000 into gear and it's not trying to wait for help 0:21:47.200 --> 0:21:51.040 or yell. It's just trying to survive and get another 0:21:51.119 --> 0:21:56.119 breath and keep that face above water. Right. It's it's 0:21:56.160 --> 0:21:58.760 like all hands are on deck to keep your you 0:21:58.960 --> 0:22:01.439 upright in the water. That's the literally, all hands are 0:22:01.440 --> 0:22:05.399 on deck if the deck is the water, right you know. Yeah, no, 0:22:05.480 --> 0:22:09.840 that's true. That's why I said it. So the thing is, though, Chuck, 0:22:09.880 --> 0:22:14.200 with that aquatic distress thing, it doesn't always precede drowning 0:22:14.680 --> 0:22:18.080 so much so that drowning can come on without aquatic distress. 0:22:18.720 --> 0:22:21.520 And people are so conditioned to think of drowning as 0:22:21.560 --> 0:22:25.440 aquatic distress or vice versa, that there's this is about 0:22:25.480 --> 0:22:28.160 the most heartbreaking thing I've ever heard. There are kids 0:22:28.440 --> 0:22:31.480 who will drown a substantial amount of kids who drowned, 0:22:31.560 --> 0:22:35.080 drown within twenty five yards of a parent or whoever 0:22:35.160 --> 0:22:38.399 is supposed to be watching them, and a significant portion 0:22:38.440 --> 0:22:43.520 of those kids drown with the parent or or supervising 0:22:43.560 --> 0:22:47.040 adult actually watching them drown and not realizing what they're 0:22:47.040 --> 0:22:49.520 seeing because it doesn't look like what they think drowning 0:22:49.560 --> 0:22:55.320 looks like. I wouldn't overstated, but yeah, ten percent of 0:22:55.359 --> 0:22:58.399 the parents actually watched this happening, right, So this is 0:22:58.480 --> 0:23:01.840 this is what drowning looks like. Right. If you you're 0:23:01.880 --> 0:23:04.800 not going to once the once drowning starts, if they've 0:23:04.840 --> 0:23:11.000 gone through aquatic distress, once the drowning starts, you are um. 0:23:11.119 --> 0:23:14.840 You have your head, your mouth is about at water level, 0:23:15.320 --> 0:23:18.360 and you can't call out for help because there's one 0:23:18.400 --> 0:23:21.160 of two things going on. Either you are trying to 0:23:21.240 --> 0:23:24.680 catch your breath every time your mouth comes above water, 0:23:25.280 --> 0:23:28.400 and it's happening so infrequently that all you can do 0:23:28.520 --> 0:23:33.119 is work on inhaling and exhaling, or your larynx is 0:23:33.119 --> 0:23:35.719 spasm ng and you're not breathing at all. And if 0:23:35.760 --> 0:23:39.440 you're not breathing at all, you you obviously physiologically can't 0:23:39.520 --> 0:23:43.560 shout or speak or do anything. But either way you're 0:23:43.640 --> 0:23:47.960 not um. You're not able to shout or yell or 0:23:48.080 --> 0:23:50.280 call for help or say anything. Yeah. I mean the 0:23:50.320 --> 0:23:51.960 way I read it though, is it's not like you're 0:23:52.000 --> 0:23:54.960 working on breathing. You have no choice in the matter. Yeah, 0:23:55.080 --> 0:23:57.840 Like your body has taken over, and it's not like 0:23:57.880 --> 0:24:00.679 you're like, oh, I need to get my breath. You're you. 0:24:00.680 --> 0:24:03.440 You may want to yell, right, but your body is 0:24:03.480 --> 0:24:07.960 saying no. Breathing is speeches secondary in this whole situation. 0:24:08.480 --> 0:24:10.239 We need, we need to get you to breathe ye 0:24:10.680 --> 0:24:15.920 and then um. Very similarly, your body you're not on. 0:24:16.119 --> 0:24:19.360 You can't control your arms any longer. Whatever you want 0:24:19.359 --> 0:24:22.000 to do with your arms, you can't. All you can 0:24:22.040 --> 0:24:25.280 do is kind of flap at the water, and the 0:24:25.320 --> 0:24:28.480