Drowning in shallow water, an excerpt from Life Safety
& Water Safety, The American Red Cross, page 19.
Recently
my daughter and I were talking, and she told me about how one of her friends,
when she said that she enjoyed wading in the large creek near our house, had
expressed shock and horror, saying “Don’t you know that 90% of drowning
deaths occur in shallow water”?!
I
was surprised because I hadn’t heard that statistic before. So, I did what I always do, and did some
research, and here is what I found out.
90% of
drowning deaths DO occur in shallow water, but...
This
statistic is a widely quoted, and mis-quoted, fact authored by the Red
Cross. The Red Cross states that “90%
of kids who drown in shallow water are either not with an adult or being
effectively supervised by an adult”.
Now, while 90% of drowning deaths DO occur in shallow water, the Red
Cross is referring to children, between the ages of one and four, not adults.
However,
the Red Cross also notes that, “90% of drowning
deaths occur within 30 feet (10 meters) of safety”, or shore. So, in other words most deaths occur in
shallow water. This is a completely
different and, in my mind, a much more interesting statistic. So, let’s talk about survival, death and
dying, drowning and what happens when you get wet in the wilderness.
From Wikimedia, HERE.
Death
and dying in the wilderness can happen, but the odds of dying in the wilderness
are really, really low. The United
States National Park Service states, that between 120 to 140 people die each
year, out of the 280 million people or so every year who visit the parks. Let’s face it, you probably aren’t going to
die in the wilderness!
But,
if you were to die, the “Big Five” of wilderness deaths are drowning, vehicle
accident, falling, heart attack and hypothermia, in roughly that order. Of these, dying in a vehicle accident isn’t
really a wilderness thing, since mostly they happen along a roadside, and if
you define wilderness as “a location remote enough so that standard
ground-based emergency medical services units could not extract the body”
1, then roadside accidents, just don’t happen in the wilderness. Of the remaining four causes of death in the wilderness,
three are due to accidental or unintentional trauma,
and the other one, heart attack, is a situation caused by a preexisting
condition, which requires a doctor’s medical care, and is not an accident.
This
statistic is the reason why you should get a yearly physical and always check
with your doctor before heading out in the wilder parts of the world, for more
about getting into wilderness shape, read “Getting into Wilderness Shape, a
Three-Month Program ©”, HERE.
Drowning in shallow water, an excerpt from Life Safety
& Water Safety, The American Red Cross, page 23.
Drowning
Of
the three remaining ways of dying accidentally in
the wilderness, drowning is by far the leading cause of death, with around 55%
of all accidental deaths2 being due to drowning. Perhaps this is because, while 85% of
Americans can swim, only 56% can swim well enough to rescue themselves should
they end up in the water suddenly or be swept off their feet3.
The
Red Cross statistic that most drowning deaths happen within 30 feet, or 10
meters of shore and safety is echoed by the fact that nationally, between 25%
to 30% of all drowning deaths occur in water that is less than three feet deep. As Lt. Shawn Jones of the Richmond, Virginia Fire Department noted about the James River
and drowning in shallow water, “You think 2 feet, 3 feet should be enough
for people to stand up in, but if you come to the river, you know that it's so
uneven. The rocks are uneven; there's
dips and falls and everything. You can
walk out there and be up to your ankles in water, then you take two more steps,
and you are down to your waist ... They have that false
sense of security that I can walk out into the water and just go out there,
even though I can't swim”4.
Bertoldino falling into the fish pond, from Wikimedia HERE.
Falling
into water...
A
study from 1980 to 1992, in Pima County, Arizona, titled “Wilderness
Mortalities”, noted that of the 59 accidental deaths reported, 25%, or 15 of
the deaths were due solely to drowning, however the authors also noted, that a
further 31%, or 18 fatalities, were caused by falling into water, being swept
downriver by flash floods, or being washed over waterfalls, all of which ended
in drowning, complicated by blunt force trauma.
Additionally, deaths because of falls and the associated fatal blunt
force trauma alone, totaled almost 29%, or an additional 17 deaths5.
So,
while falls and their associated blunt force trauma at 29%, account for more
deaths than drowning alone, at 25%, falls into water which ended in drowning,
at 31%, are the leading cause of death.
And when those deaths by falling into water, are added to those of
simple drownings, you have a total of 56%, or that 33 of the 59 accidental
deaths, are in some way due to water.
But
it isn’t just drowning or being swept over a waterfall and being dashed on the
rocks below, in a survival situation being wet kills, fast!
An excerpt from A
Pocket Guide to Cold Water Survival, by the Coast Guard, page 12.
Hypothermia,
being wet kills, fast!
Hypothermia,
or exposure, as it is sometime also known, is the last of the big five and it is
a dangerous lowering of your body’s core temper to below 95o F (35o
C). Contrary to popular belief, the air
temperature doesn’t have to be below freezing for hypothermia to occur. In fact, it occurs most often during the
summer months, when people are less likely to prepared for falling temperatures
due to a sudden storm or approaching nightfall.
If the temperatures drop and you have no warm layers to put on,
especially if you are wet from sweat, rain, mist, or from falling in the water,
you are at a risk for hypothermia. Summertime
exposure to the cold and wet can turn into a deadly situation, quick!
Exact
statistics for hypothermia, as well as cold related injuries, such as fatigue
and exhaustion, and the exact number of hypothermia deaths in the United States
are unknown. However, a detailed study of
all search and rescue incidents in Canada, from 1970 to 2005, found that
hypothermia was the most common type of non‐traumatic injury and accounted for
almost 50%, or 153 out of the 310 injuries7.
If
you are wet or immersed in water, you will lose body heat much faster than if
you are dry. Remember to always dress
and bring gear for the worst possible weather, dress in layers, and if you get
wet in the wilderness, dry off!
An excerpt from A
Pocket Guide to Cold Water Survival, by the Coast Guard, page 12.
So,
in the end my daughter’s friend was both right and wrong, but maybe not for the
reasons she thought of. Water IS
dangerous and just as Dolly Garza, in the Outdoor Survival Training for
Alaska’s Youth: Student Manual, noted “People who die in survival
situations generally die from one of two causes – drowning or hypothermia”.
For
more on hypothermia and water read “Hypothermia, It Can Happen Any Time,
Anywhere ©”, HERE,
“The 120 Degree Rule ©”, HERE,
and “7 Habits of Highly Effective Winter Campers ©”, HERE.
Don’t forget to come back next week and read “Turnip Bread, a 17th
Century Recipe©”, , where we will talk about recreating an old bread recipe,
that poor people used to stretch scarce flour.
I
hope that you continue to enjoy The Woodsman’s Journal Online and look for me
on YouTube at BandanaMan Productions for other related videos, HERE. Don’t forget to follow me on both The
Woodsman’s Journal Online, HERE,
and subscribe to BandanaMan Productions on YouTube. If you have questions, as always, feel free
to leave a comment on either site. I
announce new articles on Facebook at Eric Reynolds, on Instagram at
bandanamanaproductions, and on VK at Eric Reynolds, so watch for me.
That
is all for now, and as always, until next time, Happy Trails!
Notes
1 From “Wilderness Mortalities: A 13-Year Experience”, by
Torrey Goodman, et al., page 279
2 Of
the 59 cases of accidental or unintentional trauma leading to death, 15, or
about 25% were simple drownings and 18, or about 31%, were falls into water which
led to drowning. The falls/drowning
category used in “Wilderness Mortalities” included people who were swept over
waterfalls, resulting in drowning or fatal blunt force trauma.
From
“Wilderness Mortalities: A 13-Year Experience”, by Torrey Goodman, et al., page
281
3
From “Drowning Is One of the Backcountry’s Worst Dangers—But This Essential
Skill Could Help You Save a Life”, by Christopher Tedeschi
4 WWBT
NBC12, “Nationally 25% of drowning deaths happen in water 3 feet or less”,
August 16, 2011.
5 From
“Wilderness Mortalities: A 13-Year Experience”, by Torrey Goodman, et al., page
281
6 From
“Accidental hypothermia in recreational activities in the
mountains:
A narrative review”, by Proctor, et al.
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