PSA: Dry Drowning

**If you have kids, you will want to read this**

How many of you have heard of Dry Drowning?  I hadn't at all until yesterday when I read this article at MSNBC.com.   Basically, it is the story of a 10-year-old boy who died an hour or so after he walked home from a day at the pool.  What!? How is that possible???? Well, according to Wikipedia.org:

"Dry drowning is when a person's lungs become unable to extract oxygen from the air, due primarily to:

• Muscular paralysis
• Puncture wound to the torso (affecting ability of diaphragm to create respiratory movement)
• Changes to the oxygen-absorbing tissues
• Persistence of laryngospasm when immersed in fluid
• Breathing for too long any gas other than oxygen that does not kill the patient on its own. (e.g. Helium)

The person may effectively drown
without any sort of fluid. In cases of dry drowning in which the victim
was immersed, very little fluid is aspirated into the lungs. The
laryngospasm reflex essentially causes asphyxiation and neurogenic
pulmonary edema (oedema)."

MSNBC.com also had this to say:
"According to the Centers for Disease Control, some 3,600 people drowned
in 2005, the most recent year for which there are statistics. Some 10
to 15 percent of those deaths was classified as “dry drowning,” which
can occur up to 24 hours after a small amount of water gets into the
lungs. In children, that can happen during a bath."

Symptoms include:

1. Trouble breathing
2. Extreme fatigue
3. Unexpected change in behavior

Just thought everyone should know about this….