As the temperature creeps above 90 degrees nearly every day, pools throughout the Houston area are filled with children seeking respite from the heat, shrieking with laughter as they play. While kids splash around without a care in the world, a recent news story has many parents watching the water anxiously, not just for signs of immediate distress, but for more subtle hints of danger to come: a condition referred to as \u201cdry drowning.\u201d<\/p>\n
In early June, 4-year-old Frankie Delgado died nearly a week after swimming with family in Texas City. Frankie\u2019s parents said they were told their son had fluid in his lungs and may have died from dry drowning. The Delgados\u2019 story made national headlines as a cautionary tale about\u00a0the phenomenon of dying from a swimming-related injury long after leaving the water.<\/p>\n
This is not the first time stories that mention dry drowning have gone viral. Every June for the past five years, the phrase has seen a spike in popularity as a search term, according to Google Trends, with the biggest spike happening after Frankie\u2019s death. What most coverage fails to mention, however, is that \u201cdry drowning\u201d and \u201csecondary drowning,\u201d terms often used interchangeably, are not medically accepted conditions. Organizations including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization caution against using those words, noting that \u201cdrowning\u201d doesn\u2019t necessarily mean death. Instead they refer to drowning as a spectrum: nonfatal drowning, nonfatal drowning with injury and fatal drowning.<\/p>\n
Dry drowning stories have many parents imagining scenarios in which their children exhibit no signs of distress during a day at the beach or pool, or even during a bath, and then die suddenly, hours or days after inhaling water. Corrie Chumpitazi, M.D.,\u00a0an emergency medicine physician at Texas Children\u2019s Hospital, said this is extremely unlikely.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere has never been a published case where a patient was initially asymptomatic and later deteriorated or died,\u201d Chumpitazi said. And while it is possible for a person to die from drowning after leaving the water, \u201cmost would be expected to have symptoms within four to six hours,\u201d she added, noting that patients have come to the emergency room days after swimming with concerns about dry drowning that have turned out to be a respiratory virus or cold.<\/p>\n
Additionally, parents would likely observe something out of the ordinary while their children are in the water.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe way I would think about it is,\u00a0if your child was in the pool and had\u00a0to be pulled out because maybe they had a little trouble. They have some amount of coughing or problems breathing after, those are some of the scenarios,\u201d said Robert Lapus, M.D., an emergency medicine physician with Children\u2019s Memorial Hermann Hospital and The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth). \u201cDefinitely more than someone shooting them with a water gun or just playing in the bathtub.\u201d<\/p>\n
Parents who notice a scenario like the one Lapus described should keep an eye on their child for the next several hours, looking out for symptoms like coughing, confusion or trouble breathing, with indicators like chest retractions and flaring nostrils.<\/p>\n
While some of the concern surrounding dry drowning may be misplaced, drowning is the second leading cause of death by unintentional injury in children in the United States, according to the World Health Organization.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe heartbreaking thing about drowning is that it is almost always preventable and it could happen to anyone,\u201d Lapus said.<\/p>\n
The best ways to keep children safe are to ensure they cannot access pools or bodies of water alone, to be vigilant while they are swimming and to know how to perform CPR.<\/p>\n
\u201cA four-sided fence with a gate that is not easily unlatched is key for keeping kids safe,\u201d Chumpitazi said. \u201cPool alarms or pool covers are not substitutes for fences, which should also be hard to climb.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lapus said children who are swimming should be monitored by at least one undistracted adult at all times.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s important to have a dedicated pool watcher whose sole job is to have their eyes on the kids in the pool,\u201d Lapus said. \u201cThey should\u00a0not be talking with other adults or otherwise distracted.\u201d<\/p>\n
Another key piece of the puzzle for keeping kids safe near water is ensuring they know how to swim. The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) says \u201cmost children age 4 and older should learn to swim,\u201d and that children may start swimming lessons as early as a year old.<\/p>\n
Wolfies Swim School holds swimming lessons at the West University Place Recreation Center for children starting at 18 months, as well as parent-child water classes for infants as young as 4 months.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe teach basic survival skills\u2014flipping on their back, how to get to a wall or get to safety if they were to fall in a pool\u2014and also technical skills like side breathing, backstroke, breaststroke,\u201d said Brenell Ashton, aquatics director at Wolfies Swim School. \u201cWe also encourage them to practice at home. After our lessons we talk to parents about everything we worked on and what they can do.\u201d<\/p>\n
While knowing how to swim lowers the risk of drowning, even children and adults who are strong swimmers can struggle in the water.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve seen kids come in even with adults standing by the pool paying attention, suddenly they notice the toddler is at the bottom of the pool,\u201d Chumpitazi said. \u201c\u2018I only looked away for a second\u2019\u2014that\u2019s all the time that\u2019s needed for them to get in distress.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lapus noted that in addition to happening quickly, true drowning does not typically look like the drowning portrayed in movies or on TV.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe always think about drowning like splashing around, crying for help, but a lot of times kids are too focused on trying to stay above water, and it\u2019s often silent,\u201d Lapus said. \u201cThat\u2019s why it\u2019s important to always remember to be watching closely. Depending on the age of the kid, you should be within arm\u2019s length.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
As the temperature creeps above 90 degrees nearly every day, pools throughout the Houston area are filled with children seeking respite from the heat, shrieking with laughter as they play. While kids splash around without a care in the world, a recent news story has many parents watching the water anxiously, not just for signs […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10194,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2018,2019,63,65,925,102,2020],"yoast_head":"\n