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Dry drowning: the drama at the origin of this term
From the start of the sunny days, it is not uncommon to see proliferate on social networks, Facebook in mind, very anxiety-provoking warnings to parents about “dry drowning”, a delayed drowning that would occur. suddenly hours or even days after suffocation following immersion in water.
The use of the term dry drowning seems to date back to a news item from 2017, when a four-year-old called Francisco Delgado Junior, aka Frankie, died “suddenly” three days after drinking the cup in the United States. United. However, in this case, the autopsy showed a posteriori that another complication, unrelated to the drowning, was at the origin of the death, in this case heart problems.
Alas, the damage was done, and the term “dry drowning” spread like wildfire in the press.
Dry drowning or secondary drowning: anxiety-provoking and non-medical terms
The term dry drowning is controversial. It must be said that today it does not cover no medical reality. Because if a death can occur a few hours after a child has drunk the cup, there are systematically warning signs, continuity between the incident during swimming and a possible worsening of the state of health. In other words, a child’s health is not going to suddenly worsen hours or even days after drinking the cup.
Therefore, tAll the terms dry drowning, delayed drowning or secondary drowning are abusive and erroneous. The scientific and medical literature specifies that a drowning is designated by “primary respiratory failure resulting from submersion in a liquid medium”, Submersion denoting complete immersion, which includes the respiratory tract. From there, there can only be three categories of drowning: fatal (or fatal) drowning, non-fatal drowning with sequelae, and non-fatal drowning without sequelae. The terms wet, dry, active, passive or secondary drowning should no longer be used.
The different stages of drowning
While there is no dry or secondary drowning strictly speaking, there are on the other hand different stages of drowning, described according to Szpilman’s algorithm, detailed in a presentation by Prof. Pierre Michelet, head of the emergency department of the ‘Timone hospital and drowning specialist.
Considered as a reference for evaluating the severity of a drowning, this algorithm starts from the victim’s verbal response, or his state of apnea, which makes it possible to assess his neurological state. Depending on the responses to the different states that follow, 6 stages of drowning are obtained. what is wrongly called dry drowning would then correspond to a stage 1 which is not detected and which will worsen, because a small amount of water remains in the lungs. Fortunately, in the majority of cases, this type of drowning will not follow up because the victim will recover quickly.
Dry drowning: how to prevent and avoid it?
When it comes to drowning, the watchwords are of course prevention and surveillance. It is essential to carefully supervise children when swimming, even in soft and calm water, even when the water is shallow, the child is on foot, and even if the child seems to know how to swim well.
The signs and symptoms that should alert and suggest a drowning are the following: cough, fatigue, difficulty in breathing, blue lips, pale or even greyish complexion, vomiting, pain in the stomach or rib cage, respiratory failure, changes in behavior and in particular irritability …
If a baby or child has any of these suggestive symptoms more than an hour after swimming, they should be rushed to the emergency room.
In an article from World dating from 2019, Professor Pierre Michelet explained that the problem was that parents sometimes put bluish lips and other behavioral changes on the account of fatigue or cold. “What I’m trying to say is thatyou must react if you see that your child does not return to his normal state after a few minutes”, Explained Professor Michelet.
As a rule, it is advisable to closely monitor a child after even slight aquatic trauma. Because children often tend to cope better with discomfort and to minimize it. The main complications of a non-fatal drowning not dealt with in time are acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) or infectious pneumonia.
sources:
- https://journals.lww.com/em-news/blog/BreakingNews/pages/post.aspx?PostID=377
- https://www.revmed.ch/RMS/2018/RMS-N-617/Docteur-mon-enfant-a-bu-la-tasse-peut-il-mourir-d-une-noyade-seche
- http://www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/diseases/drowning/fr/
- http://smurbmpm.fr/wp-content/uploads/2013-2014/15-05/noyade-pr-michelet.pdf
- https://www.lemonde.fr/les-decodeurs/article/2019/07/05/noyade-seche-ce-que-signifie-ou-non-cette-expression-anxiogene_5485877_4355770.html