The captain jumped from the deck, fully dressed, and sprinted through the water. He was a former lifeguard, and he knew what to do: He headed straight for a couple swimming between their anchored sportfish and the beach.
“I think he thinks you’re drowning,” the husband told his wife. They had been splashing each other, and she had screamed, but now they were just standing on a sandbar.
“We’re fine. What is he doing?” she asked, annoyed.
“We’re fine!” the husband yelled, waving the captain off.
But he kept swimming. Hard.
“Move!” the captain barked as he sprinted between the couple. Directly behind them, not 10 feet away, their 9-year-old daughter was drowning.
How did this captain know—from 50 feet away—what the father couldn’t recognize from just 10 feet? The captain was trained to understand that drowning is not the call for help that most people expect. As a former U.S. Coast Guard rescue swimmer, I wasn’t surprised at all by this story. Drowning is almost always a deceptively quiet event.
Francesco A. Pia, a former lifeguard, is the person who coined the term “instinctive drowning response.” This is what people do to avoid actual or perceived suffocation in the water. When someone is drowning, there is very little splashing. There is also no waving, yelling or calling for help. As Pia explains, what happens instead is that—except in rare circumstances—drowning people are physiologically unable to call out for help. The respiratory system is designed for breathing. Speech is a secondary function. Breathing must be fulfilled before speech can occur.
The mouths of drowning people sink below, and then reappear above, the water’s surface; they are not above the surface long enough to exhale, inhale and call for help. Similarly, drowning people can’t wave for help. Instinct forces them to extend their arms laterally and press down on the water’s surface, so they can lift their mouths out of the water to breathe. In this state, they can’t move toward a rescuer.
From beginning to end of the instinctive drowning response, drowning people remain upright in the water, with no evidence of a supporting kick. Note, these people can only struggle on the surface of the water from 20 to 60 seconds before submersion occurs.
This doesn’t mean that a person who is yelling for help and thrashing isn’t in real trouble—he or she is experiencing aquatic distress. It doesn’t last long, but these people can assist in their own rescue by grabbing lifelines, reaching for throw rings and the like.
You can look for these specific visual cues to tell the difference between someone in aquatic distress and a drowning person:
• Head tilted back with mouth open
• Head low in the water, with mouth at water level
• Eyes glassy and empty, unable to focus
• Eyes closed
• Hair over forehead or eyes
• Not using legs
• Hyperventilating or gasping
• Trying to swim in a particular direction but not making headway
• Trying to roll over onto the back
• Appears to be climbing an invisible ladder
Always be aware of these cues. If a crewmember falls overboard and everything looks OK, don’t assume that things are fine. Even if they seem to be treading water and staring up at the deck, ask if they are alright. If they return a blank stare, then you may have less than 30 seconds to get to them.
And parents, make a mental note that children playing in the water typically make noise. When they get quiet, you need to get to them and make sure they’re not drowning. — Mario Vittone
This article was originally published in the July 2023 issue.
