Today I learned that people don't know what drowning looks like

[Derived Absurdity]

By far the biggest WTF fact I've found out recently.

http://www.slate.com/articles/health_an ... n_the.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Seriously, WTF? This is horrifying. I never knew any of this. How has the entire world become so misled on something so basic and important?

Here's Wikipedia on the "instinctive drowning response":

While distress and panic may sometimes take place beforehand, drowning itself is quick and often silent.[1][2][3] A person at, or close to, the point of drowning is unable to keep their mouth above water long enough to breathe properly and is unable to shout.[1] Lacking air, their body cannot perform the voluntary efforts involved in waving or seeking attention. Involuntary actions operated by the autonomic nervous system involve lateral flapping or paddling with the arms to press them down into the water in the effort to raise the mouth long enough to breathe, and tilting the head back.[1] As an instinctive reaction, this is not consciously mediated nor under conscious control.

I mean... how many people have drowned because other people had no idea to rescue them because TV and Hollywood taught them that drowning is something completely different? I seriously can't believe a myth this extremely dangerous has been allowed to spread so far. How many deaths has it been responsible for, honestly? Parents have literally watched their children drown because of this myth.

Did any of you know this?

[maz89]

Yeah, 'deceptively quiet' is the right way to put it. When we were little kids, my dad once surprised us by suddenly racing towards the beach all of us were playing in, jumping in while fully clothed and then accelerating towards our youngest brother, who was doing backstrokes. Until we learned he wasn't. It was a scary episode, but we did learn we had to keep an eye on each other to catch the signs.

On the other hand, some people are lucky enough to have the strength to signal for help but... then there's the scum factor.

[Islandmur]

I watched something about drowning a few years back and i was as shocked as you when I learned how people really drowned. I had a little cousin (2 years old) that drowned in a swimming pool with people around her and no one noticed because she didn't scream or shout. She was in the shallow end and her parents were putting the floaters on the baby and she just went one step to far and while they were diving up front for her, she had already floated down the end of the pool.

[Cassius Clay]

I once saved a kid from drowning in the wave pool at six flags when I was 13. I'm a goddamned American hero.

(He later stole another kids wallet and thought I'd be cool with it...I ratted him out)

[Eva Yojimbo]

The closest "near death experience" I ever had was when I was 3-4 and fell into a neighbor's pool without knowing how to swim. Luckily they were watching from the door/window and managed to pull me out. I would have no idea what it would "look like" from the other side, though. I'll just use this as an excuse to post the famous Stevie Smith poem:

Nobody heard him, the dead man,
But still he lay moaning:
I was much further out than you thought
And not waving but drowning.

Poor chap, he always loved larking
And now he's dead
It must have been too cold for him his heart gave way,
They said.

Oh, no no no, it was too cold always
(Still the dead one lay moaning)
I was much too far out all my life
And not waving but drowning.