Articles Tagged with child drowning

As summer approaches in San Clemente and throughout Southern California, more families will be spending time at the beach and in neighborhood pools. While swimming can be a great summertime activity for children and adults alike, it is critical to remember that swimming also comes with serious risks of drowning injuries and deaths. Indeed, according to a report from CNN Health, drowning is the leading cause of death for children between the ages of 1 and 4, and nearly 400 kids under the age of 15, on average, die every year in drowning incidents in pools and spas. Adults, too, can sustain fatal drowning injuries if they are caught in rip tides or if they consume alcohol before boating or swimming. 

With summer just a couple of months away, now is the time to refresh your knowledge of drowning risks to help prevent a drowning death this summer.

What Do You Need to Know About Drowning Risks?

ryan-wilson-18905-copy-300x300One of the great features of any hotel when you are on vacation with your family is an outdoor pool. Even for visitors to Rancho Bernardo who are planning to spend much of their time at the beach, if you are staying at a hotel with a pool, there is a good chance that you and your children will enjoy some time by the poolside. However, pools can be extremely dangerous, and children especially can sustain serious hotel injuries at a pool. While drowning due to swimming inexperience or slipping and falling typically is the primary concern when it comes to hotel pool injuries, there are other ways that guests can get hurt while enjoying the water. Specifically, pool drain accidents and pool filter accidents happen more often than you might think.

Hotel Pools and Circulation Entrapments in Drains

Pools and hot tubs at hotels have drain systems and filter systems that are designed to clean the water and to create circulation. While these systems help to ensure that hotel guests are swimming in clean water, they can also lead to serious personal injuries if proper safety precautions are not taken or if these devices do not undergo regular maintenance. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) refers to many of these injuries that lead to drowning deaths as “circulation entrapments.” In such situations, an injured guest may be able to file a hotel negligence claim.

ryan-wilson-18905-copy-300x300Can children and adults really suffer fatal injuries as a result of “dry drowning” or “secondary drowning” in San Marcos this summer? Parents often hear about—and worry about—the risks of dry drowning, yet according to a recent article in TribLive, physicians say that there are many misconceptions about dry drowning and secondary drowning that need to be cleared up. These terms suggest that they refer to medical conditions, when in fact they often are used in many different scenarios in which people are suffering from a variety of medical conditions. As such, parents do not need to worry about dry drowning, but they do need to be aware of other medical conditions that can arise when a child is involved in a drowning accident.

Dry Drowning is Not Real, But Other Medical Conditions are

According to Dr. Peter Wernicki, who is a member of the American Red Cross Scientific Advisory Council, the terms ‘dry drowning’ and ‘secondary drowning’ are ones that have “totally been over-hyped by social media and people who are not knowledgeable on the subject.” He went on to emphasize that there is a common misconception that kids get rescued from the water or accidentally swallow or inhale water in the ocean or in a pool, and then suddenly—without warning—the child stops breathing hours or days later. As Wernicki underscores, “that just doesn’t happen.” Indeed, he clarified, “a child doesn’t act fine for eight hours and then die from drowning.”

ian-schneider-38957-300x200While beaches in Carlsbad and Oceanside are popular throughout the year, these beaches grow particularly crowded during the summer when the risk of a drowning accident increases. According to a recent article in The San Diego Union-Tribune, a drowning death in Carlsbad last summer has left members of the community “looking for ways to improve safety at its three-quarter-mile North Beach before the busy season returns.” Currently, that area of the beach, which is very close to Oceanside, does not have lifeguards on duty. In the event of an emergency, state lifeguards will “respond from the nearby state beach.” However, safety advocates argue that such a response is insufficient.

Developing a Plan to Make Carlsbad Beach Area Safer

The City Council, according to the article, wants its staff to “develop a plan on how to make the beach safer, including the possibility of adding lifeguards there.” According to City Manager Kevin Crawford, City Council staff members will conduct research into different safety options and will seek involvement from Carlsbad residents before providing the City Council with “some options that could be implemented before summer.” As Crawford clarified, “It’s going to be a push . . . a lot of work, but I think we can do it.”

file0001308286258Most San Diego residents do not have to wait until summer to enjoy trips to the beach or afternoons by the pool. However, given that most children are on vacation during the summer months and likely will be engaging in recreational activities in and around the water, it is important to think about water safety and ways of preventing serious and even fatal child injuries. Parents in California should understand the risks and symptoms of both dry drowning and secondary drowning, and how to react in the event that an accident happens. According to a recent article in the Huffington Post, dry drowning and secondary drowning are not especially well understood, and it is important to learn more about how these incidents can occur.

Risks Continue After a Child Leaves the Water


One of the scariest features of both dry drowning and secondary drowning is that the child typically appears to be safe after being pulled from the water, only to exhibit life-threatening symptoms at a later point. Dry drowning is a little bit different from secondary drowning in terms of the timing. To better understand the symptoms of each, we should take a closer look at what each type of drowning entails.

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