How to spot if someone is drowning

I saw this article on the net and thought it was very important so please take note of the signs

Website source: http://mariovittone.com/2010/05/154/

Drowning Doesn’t Look Like Drowning - by Mario on May 3, 2010

in Boating Safety,Water Safety


The new captain jumped from the deck, fully dressed, and sprinted through the water. A former lifeguard, he kept his eyes on his victim as he headed straight for the couple swimming between their anchored sportfisher and the beach. “I think he thinks you’re drowning,” the husband said to his wife. They had been splashing each other and she had screamed but now they were just standing, neck-deep on the sand bar. “We’re fine, what is he doing?” she asked, a little annoyed. “We’re fine!” the husband yelled, waving him off, but his captain kept swimming hard. ”Move!” he barked as he sprinted between the stunned owners. Directly behind them, not ten feet away, their nine-year-old daughter was drowning. Safely above the surface in the arms of the captain, she burst into tears, “Daddy!”

How did this captain know – from fifty feet away – what the father couldn’t recognize from just ten? Drowning is not the violent, splashing, call for help that most people expect. The captain was trained to recognize drowning by experts and years of experience. The father, on the other hand, had learned what drowning looks like by watching television. If you spend time on or near the water (hint: that’s all of us) then you should make sure that you and your crew knows what to look for whenever people enter the water. Until she cried a tearful, “Daddy,” she hadn’t made a sound. As a former Coast Guard rescue swimmer, I wasn’t surprised at all by this story. 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.

The Instinctive Drowning Response – so named by Francesco A. Pia, Ph.D., is what people do to avoid actual or perceived suffocation in the water. And it does not look like most people expect. There is very little splashing, no waving, and no yelling or calls for help of any kind. To get an idea of just how quiet and undramatic from the surface drowning can be, consider this: It is the number two cause of accidental death in children, age 15 and under (just behind vehicle accidents) – of the approximately 750 children who will drown next year, about 375 of them will do so within 25 yards of a parent or other adult. In ten percent of those drownings, the adult will actually watch them do it, having no idea it is happening (source: CDC). Drowning does not look like drowning – Dr. Pia, in an article in the Coast Guard’s On Scene Magazine, described the instinctive drowning response like this:

Except in rare circumstances, drowning people are physiologically unable to call out for help. The respiratory system was designed for breathing. Speech is the secondary or overlaid function. Breathing must be fulfilled, before speech occurs.
Drowning people’s mouths alternately sink below and reappear above the surface of the water. The mouths of drowning people are not above the surface of the water long enough for them to exhale, inhale, and call out for help. When the drowning people’s mouths are above the surface, they exhale and inhale quickly as their mouths start to sink below the surface of the water.
Drowning people cannot wave for help. Nature instinctively forces them to extend their arms laterally and press down on the water’s surface. Pressing down on the surface of the water, permits drowning people to leverage their bodies so they can lift their mouths out of the water to breathe.
Throughout the Instinctive Drowning Response, drowning people cannot voluntarily control their arm movements. Physiologically, drowning people who are struggling on the surface of the water cannot stop drowning and perform voluntary movements such as waving for help, moving toward a rescuer, or reaching out for a piece of rescue equipment.
From beginning to end of the Instinctive Drowning Response people’s bodies remain upright in the water, with no evidence of a supporting kick. Unless rescued by a trained lifeguard, these drowning people can only struggle on the surface of the water from 20 to 60 seconds before submersion occurs.

(Source: On Scene Magazine: Fall 2006 (page 14))

This doesn’t mean that a person that is yelling for help and thrashing isn’t in real trouble – they are experiencing aquatic distress. Not always present before the instinctive drowning response, aquatic distress doesn’t last long – but unlike true drowning, these victims can still assist in their own rescue. They can grab lifelines, throw rings, etc.

Look for these other signs of drowning when persons are in the water:

Head low in the water, mouth at water level
Head tilted back with mouth open
Eyes glassy and empty, unable to focus
Eyes closed
Hair over forehead or eyes
Not using legs – Vertical
Hyperventilating or gasping
Trying to swim in a particular direction but not making headway
Trying to roll over on the back
Appear to be climbing an invisible ladder.

So if a crew member falls overboard and everything looks OK – don’t be too sure. Sometimes the most common indication that someone is drowning is that they don’t look like they’re drowning. They may just look like they are treading water and looking up at the deck. One way to be sure? Ask them, “Are you alright?” If they can answer at all – they probably are. If they return a blank stare, you may have less than 30 seconds to get to them. And parents – children playing in the water make noise. When they get quiet, you get to them and find out why.


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Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by the author are not necessarily those of the Department of Homeland Security or the U.S. Coast Guard.

Trying to delete a post and my blog

Am I going mad - I've been trying to delete a post but can't? So I'm using the space to write a new post LOL!

OK I used to be (notice past tense) an Avon Rep/Sales Leader, but last week I had an horrific reaction to one of their new skincare products - my skin is peeling because it is VERY dry now and I also had 2 blisters under my eyes (well, they were on my cheek bones).

I do have a website I was using to promote my Avon business, of course that is obsolete now therefore I am turning it into a Home Educators website and one for promotion of my books!

I have to concentrate on teaching my youngest son his iGCSEs next year (DV)

11 Rules of Life

Bill Gates is supposed to have written these, but apparently he didn't - they come from a book written someone else! 

UPDATE: This list is the work of Charles J. Sykes, author of the 1996 book Dumbing Down Our Kids: Why American Children Feel Good About Themselves But Can't Read, Write, Or Add. (Sykes' list was published in numerous newspapers, although it did not appear in his 1996 book. It did, however, form the meat of Sykes' 2007 book, 50 Rules Kids Won't Learn in School: Real-World Antidotes to Feel-Good Education.)

They are good points though...

RULE 1......Life is not fair; get used to it.

RULE 2......The world won't care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself.

RULE 3......You will NOT make 40 thousand dollars a year right out of high school. You won't be a vice president with a car phone, until you earn both.

RULE 4......If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss. He doesn't have tenure.

RULE 5......Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your grandparents had a different word for burger flipping; they called it opportunity.

RULE 6......If you mess up, it's not your parents' fault, so don't whine about your mistakes, learn from them.

RULE 7......Before you were born, your parents weren't as boring as they are now. They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes and listening to you talk about how cool you are. So before you save the rain forest from the parasites of your parents' generation, try "delousing" the closet in your own room.

RULE 8......Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life has not. In some schools they have abolished failing grades; they'll give you as many times as you want to get the right answer. This doesn't bear the slightest resemblance to ANYTHING in real life.

RULE 9......Life is not divided into semesters. You don't get summer off and very few employers are interested in helping you find yourself. Do that on your own time.

RULE 10.....Television is NOT real life. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs.

RULE 11.....Be nice to nerds. Chances are you'll end up working for one.

Found a website with the further 3:

12. Smoking does not make you look cool. It makes you look moronic. Next time you're out cruising, watch an 11-year-old with a butt in his mouth. That's what you look like to anyone over 20. Ditto for "expressing yourself" with purple hair and/or pierced body parts.

13. You are not immortal. If you are under the impression that living fast, dying young and leaving a beautiful corpse is romantic, you obviously haven't seen one of your peers at room temperature lately.

14. Enjoy this while you can. Sure parents are a pain, school's a bother, and life is depressing. But someday you'll realize how wonderful it as to be a kid. Maybe you should start now.

Becoming an Avon Sales Leader

I have been with Avon Cosmetics on and off since 1996 and I just can't seem to be able to give it up! :)

We need so much work doing in our house and I keep having a whinge about the fact we need a new kitchen, new bathroom etc that maybe it's time I did something to earn some money! Although I'm a Christian and I know that I must trust in God in ALL things - I wonder if now is the time for me to take on more responsibility regarding earning some extra money for the family. Running your own business would surely build character and doing a job like Avon would have me coming into contact with people. I don't want to justify this because I want to do it - I want it to be a correct decision spiritually as well!

In the past, when things have gone wrong I have given up straight away - I don't 'do' failure, but life can't always be easy - there will always be times when people won't co-operate! I've been thinking about those people who have reached the top of their professions - I'm sure they didn't sail the calm seas to get where they are now! I expect things to go easily and when they don't - I just throw in the towel - now that isn't building good character! The stumbling blocks aren't the problem it's how we get over them or around them that shows us as we truly are!

I live in fear of doing things like this in case I give up! I know what my Avon ASM will say if I say I want to become a Sales Leader - Oh no not again! Or willl you give it up AGAIN? I am not a good witness nor example!

There are some things I don't like about Avon (from a Christian point of view, mainly) some are:

Selling New Age stuff - yin and yan items or elements jewellery
Pictures of naked women in the brochures (even though you don't see anything - it's still unnecessary)
All the feminism jargon/items - like empowerment necklaces - speaks of women being strong and empowered - really feminist - Bleuch!

Then again if I worked in a shop there would be things which I wouldn't agree with - like Sunday opening etc I don't think any job in the secular world would be 100% in line with Scripture anyway!

OK I'm just putting my thoughts down here!

NO LONGER SELLING AVON AS I HAD AN HORRIFIC REACTION TO ONE OF THEIR SKINCARE PRODUCTS - MY SKIN WAS BURNED THEREFORE I FEEL LIKE I CANNOT SELL IT ANYMORE!

Avon and parties

I have been doing Avon now on and off since 1996 and I was planning on giving it up, but them I thought I need some extra money for the family! So I am planning on starting up an Avon parties business. If I'm honest I'm scared of failing and not doing well, but I have a paraphrase of the words of Thomas Edison firmly fixed in my mind -
"I have now found out 10,000 ways on how not to make a light bulb!" He carried on trying and hey presto we have electric lights! Another quote I read the other day was
"Often times, success rises out of the ashes of failure!" How can I learn unless I make mistakes, unless I am willing to change things

Anyway I'm going to try it :)

29th May 2011 = I've given up selling Avon as I have had an horrific reaction to one of their skincare products - it burned my skin so badly I had 2 blister-like bumps and my skin was peeling!

FLUTE EXAM!!

I PASSED!! Whooo hoooo! Only just, but I got it :D :D

Flute Exam

Well today was FE day - not Further Education day but Flute Exam day and I flunked it! Didn't do well at all in the exam BUT I have learned that if one is to succeed, one is to put in self discipline, constant and consistent practice and maybe a timetable of what to practice!

My scales and arpeggios were a disaster - my mind closed down at that point. Then the aural wasn't good either! BE PREPARED is a fantastic motto to have in any walk of life - especially when preparing for an exam!

All is not lost :) Onward to my next lesson (in October) :)