Providing first aid to a drowning person

If a person begins to choke and drown in water, water can enter the lungs. It causes suffocation, pulmonary edema. This condition is called drowning.

Timely assistance can save the life of the victim, if you act as quickly and confidently as possible. From the moment of losing consciousness and stopping the breathing of a drowning person, you will have only 5-6 minutes, during which you need to have time to help the person.

The most dangerous and difficult action is to pull a drowning person out of the water. In this state, people get lost, panic and can drag the rescuer to the bottom. Then both can die. It is better to grab a drowning person from behind above the elbow or by the hair and drag him to the shore, turning the person face up.

Many drowning people are unconscious. Breathing stops, the heart stops beating, clinical death occurs. There is very little time left for cardiopulmonary resuscitation.

If a person is conscious and clears his throat on his own, then everything is pretty good – the heart and lungs are working. Warm the victim, help him clear his throat and still call an ambulance. Water may remain in the lungs even if the person feels well. After some time, this can cause pulmonary edema, so the first time requires observation in the hospital.

Step-by-step instructions for saving a drowning man

Of considerable importance is the water in which the victim ended up. From the ingress of fresh water, the rhythm of heart contractions is disturbed, edema develops, and the function of the systemic circulation stops. When salt water enters the lungs, the alveoli stretch and rupture due to thickening of the blood. Therefore, pay attention to the reservoir from which the person was rescued in order to report this to medical workers.

Pull the drowning man out of the water

Rescuing a drowning man is a rather dangerous undertaking. If a drowning person grabs you and drowns you out of fear, it is useless to shout, calm or push him away. You need to take in air and dive deep, then the drowning man will reflexively let you go. After that, you should swim up behind and deliver the person to the shore.

In the case when the drowning person has already gone under water, dive, grab your hands and lift them to the surface, making sure that your face does not sink into the water.

Call an ambulance

While the car is running, you may have to carry out resuscitation yourself all this time. This is quite difficult and very tiring, so you need to call for help as soon as possible – so that the car has time to arrive before you run out of strength.

Assess the state of the drowning

If a person is conscious, coughing, but can breathe, wait for help, and in the meantime, help cough and warm the victim with a dry towel or clothes.

If there is no consciousness, check the pulse by pressing two fingers on the carotid artery. Pay attention to whether foam is coming from the mouth, whether the person is breathing. It is also important how old the victim is in front of you – many resuscitation actions with children are carried out somewhat differently due to their fragility and volume.

Remove water from the lungs of a drowning man

In any case, whether a person is conscious or not, it is necessary to remove the remaining water from the lungs. Light people or children can be put with their stomachs on their knees, as if bent in half, so that the head is lower than the chest. If this is not possible, turn the person face down and remove water with massage squeezing movements on the back from the bottom up. Foam may go – white or pink, mixed with blood.

If water does not come out, you can try to put pressure on the root of the victim’s tongue, trying to induce vomiting, while patting the person on the back.

Cleanse the nose and mouth of a drowning man

Silt, sand can clog there, and without removing foreign objects, any further help will be useless. Using fingers or a handkerchief, remove possible foreign bodies from the oral cavity and nasal passages. Stretch out the tongue of a drowning person so that it does not sink into the throat and does not block breathing.

Prepare for CPR

After removing the water and cleaning the mouth and nose of the drowning person, you need to turn it over on its back, put a roller under the neck. If breathing has not returned, and the pulse has not appeared, it means that the brain is now without food and the person is in a state of clinical death.

Within the next 6 minutes, it is still possible to bring a drowning person back to life, after which the brain dies, even if the ambulance that arrives can start the heart. Therefore, resuscitation should be carried out as quickly as possible and not stop for a minute until the return of one’s own breathing and pulse from a drowning person. Sometimes this does not happen and it is necessary to carry out resuscitation until the arrival of doctors.

Deliver a precordial strike

Start resuscitation with him. With such a blow they try to start the heart. To do this, visually divide the sternum into three parts. In the lower third, deliver a short punch to the center. Strength must be commensurate with the age and build of the victim – a fragile person is only lightly knocked, for a massive and strong one, more effort will be required. Children under 10 years of age should not be given a precordial blow.

Check the carotid pulse after the impact. If it doesn’t appear, go to the next step.

Perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation

Actions will depend on how many rescuers there are. If there are at least two of you, then one can perform chest compressions, and the other can do artificial respiration. It is very difficult for one person to do both, and the person quickly gets tired.

If you are alone, then 2 compressions are performed for 15 breaths in a row, and then everything is repeated. But if you are very tired, and the ambulance is still waiting for a long time, it is permissible to carry out only cardiac resuscitation, without breaths.

When you are alone, one rescuer inhales the victim, and the second compression. You can change places. There are 1 compressions per breath. All actions are also done in a row without stopping, in a circle.

Start artificial respiration

Stand on your knees to the left of the drowning man. Pinch the victim’s nose with your fingers, open the mouth by pulling the lower jaw. If it didn’t work out, breaths can be taken into the nose, fixing the jaw.

Inhale the air, press your mouth tightly against the mouth or nose of the drowning person and exhale. You can use a loose tissue to cover the victim’s mouth or nose. If you did everything right, the chest will rise. If this does not happen, then the air is escaping through a loosely clamped nose, or you are weakly pressed against the victim with your mouth.

Depending on how many rescuers, take 1 or 2 breaths.

Start compressions

After inhaling, you will need to make a series of compressions – strong pressure on the chest. Visually again divide the sternum into three parts, feel for the xiphoid process in the center of the lower third of the chest – the place where the ribs converge. Below this area, the fingers “fall through” into the soft abdomen.

From the very bottom of the xiphoid process, set aside a distance upward of about three fingers. Place your palms one on top of the other in this place. You will press on the chest with the base of the palm. Bend the hands slightly up so that the fingers do not touch the ribs, but are above the body of the victim. Keep your arms straight, do not bend your elbows.

Start pressing – the sternum should sag under the arms by 4 – 5 cm in an adult. You can put pressure on the baby’s chest with one hand or even with one thumb if you have a baby in front of you. In children, the sternum should move no more than 2 cm.

The frequency of pressures is about 60 – 80 per minute, you can count aloud. Pressure should be non-stop, in a row.

Do the required number of compressions: 15 if you are alone, or 5 if you have a partner. Then inhale again, and repeat the compressions again.

You can not stop resuscitation until an ambulance arrives or the person can breathe on his own. If you are completely exhausted, do only compressions, skipping breaths.

Popular questions and answers

Many are afraid to perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation, fearing to harm or break the ribs of the victim. But this is his only chance for life, and even professionals can sometimes damage the ribs. This is just one of the complications of resuscitation. But you save a man’s life.

More about the consequences after drowning will tell ambulance doctor Mikhail Konevsky.