Drowning is death Death is the state of terminated life. The term "death" refers to both to the event of life's termination and to the state of lack of life. The true nature of the latter has for millennia been a central concern of the world's religious traditions and of philosophical enquiry. Many religions maintain faith in either some kind of afterlife from suffocation (asphyxia Asphyxia (from Greek a-, "without" and σφυγμός , "pulse, heartbeat") is a condition of severely deficient supply of oxygen to the body that arises from being unable to breathe normally. An example of asphyxia is choking. Asphyxia causes generalized hypoxia, which primarily affects the tissues and organs) caused by a liquid entering the lungs and preventing the absorption of oxygen leading to cerebral hypoxia Hypoxia is a pathological condition in which the body as a whole or a region of the body (tissue hypoxia) is deprived of adequate oxygen supply. Variations in arterial oxygen concentrations can be part of the normal physiology, for example, during strenuous physical exercise. A mismatch between oxygen supply and its demand at the cellular level and myocardial infarction Myocardial infarction , commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when the blood supply to part of the heart is interrupted causing some heart cells to die. This is most commonly due to occlusion (blockage) of a coronary artery following the rupture of a vulnerable atherosclerotic plaque, which is an unstable collection of lipids (like cholesterol). [1]

Near drowning is the survival of a drowning event involving unconsciousness or water inhalation and can lead to serious secondary complications, including death, after the event.[1][2]

Secondary drowning is death due to chemical or biological changes in the lungs after a near drowning incident.

In many countries, drowning is one of the leading causes of death for children under 14 years old. For example, in the United States, it is the second leading cause of death (after motor vehicle crashes) in children 14 and younger.[3] Children have drowned in wading pools and even bath tubs. The rate of drowning in populations around the world varies widely according to their access to water, the climate and the national swimming culture. For example, typically the United Kingdom suffers 450 drownings per annum or 1 per 150,000 of population whereas the United States suffers 6,500 drownings or around 1 per 50,000 of population. Drowning related injuries are the fifth most likely cause of accidental death in the US. The rate of near drowning incidents is unknown.

Victims are more likely to be male, young or adolescent.[3] Surveys indicate that 10% of children under 5 have experienced a situation with a high risk of drowning. The causes of drowning cases in the US are as follows:[citation needed]

Contents

Drowning risk situations

Typical situation pool lifeguards are trained to look for; drownings are silent and do not attract attention. A sign with 82 tally marks Tally marks are an implementation of the unary numeral system. They are a form of numeral used for counting. They allow updating written intermediate results without erasing or discarding anything written down. However, because of the length of large numbers, tallies are not commonly used for static text warns hikers on the trail to Hanakapiai Beach, Hawaii.

Most drownings occur in water, 90% in freshwater (rivers, lakes and pools A swimming pool, swimming bath, wading pool, or simply a pool, is an artificially enclosed body of water intended for swimming or water-based recreation. There are many standard sizes; the largest and deepest is the Olympic size. A pool can be built either above or in the ground, and from materials such as metal, plastic, fiberglass or concrete) 10% in seawater Seawater is water from a sea or ocean. On average, seawater in the world's oceans has a salinity of about 3.5%. This means that every 1 kg of seawater has approximately 35 grams of dissolved salts . The average density of seawater at the surface of the ocean is 1.025 g/ml; seawater is denser than freshwater (which reaches a maximum density of 1.000, drownings in other fluids are rare and often industrial accidents.

Common conditions and risk factors that may lead to drowning include but are not limited to: (In no particular order)

People have drowned in as little as 30 mm of water lying face down, in one case in a wheel rut. Children have drowned in baths, buckets and toilets; inebriates or those under the influence of drugs have died in puddles. For a more detailed list of causes see swimming Swimming is movement through water, usually without artificial assistance. Swimming is an activity that can be both useful and recreational. Its primary uses are bathing, cooling, travel, fishing, escape, exercise, and sport.

The pathophysiology of drowning

The body's reaction to submersion

Submerging the face in water colder than about 21 °C (70 °F) triggers the mammalian diving reflex The mammalian diving reflex optimizes respiration which allows mammals to stay underwater for a long time. It is exhibited strongly in aquatic mammals , but exists in a weaker version in other mammals, including humans. Diving birds, such as penguins, have a similar diving reflex. Every animal's diving reflex is triggered specifically by cold, found in all mammals Mammals are a class of vertebrate animals whose females are characterized by the possession of mammary glands while both males and females are characterized by sweat glands, hair, three middle ear bones used in hearing, and a neocortex region in the brain, and especially in marine mammals Marine mammals are a diverse group of roughly 120 species of mammal that are primarily ocean-dwelling or depend on the ocean for food. They include the cetaceans , the sirenians (manatees and dugong), the pinnipeds (true seals, eared seals and walrus), and several otters (the sea otter and marine otter). The polar bear, while not aquatic, is also such as whales Whales are marine mammals of order Cetacea which are neither dolphins—members, in other words, of the families Delphinidae or Platanistoidae—nor porpoises. They include the blue whale, the largest living animal. Orcas, colloquially referred to as "killer whales", and pilot whales have whale in their name but for the purpose of and seals Pinnipeds or fin-footed mammals are a widely distributed and diverse group of semi-aquatic marine mammals comprising the families Odobenidae (the walrus), Otariidae (eared seals, including sea lions and fur seals), and Phocidae (earless seals). Formerly classified as a separate biological suborder, Pinnipedia is now sometimes considered a. This reflex protects the body by putting it into energy saving mode to maximize the time it can stay under water. The strength of this reflex is greater in colder water and has three principal effects:

The reflex action is automatic and allows both a conscious and an unconscious person to survive longer without oxygen under water than in a comparable situation on dry land. The exact mechanism for this effect has been debated and may be a result of brain cooling similar to the protective effects seen in patients treated with deep hypothermia Hypothermia is a condition in which an organism's temperature drops below that required for normal metabolism and bodily functions. In warm-blooded animals, core body temperature is maintained near a constant level through biologic homeostasis. But, when the body is exposed to cold, its internal mechanisms may be unable to replenish the heat that.[4][5]

The reaction to oxygen deprivation

A conscious victim will hold his or her breath (see Apnea Apnea, apnoea, or apnœa is a term for suspension of external breathing. During apnea there is no movement of the muscles of respiration and the volume of the lungs initially remains unchanged. Depending on the patency (openness) of the airways there may or may not be a flow of gas between the lungs and the environment; gas exchange within the) and will try to access air, often resulting in panic Panic is a sudden fear which dominates or replaces thinking and often affects groups of people or animals. Panics typically occur in disaster situations, or violent situations which may endanger the overall health of the affected group. The word panic derives from the Greek πανικός, "pertaining to Pan", the god of woods and fields, including rapid body movement. This uses up more oxygen in the blood stream and reduces the time to unconsciousness. The victim can voluntarily hold his or her breath for some time, but the breathing reflex will increase until the victim will try to breathe, even when submerged.

The breathing reflex in the human body is weakly related to the amount of oxygen Oxygen (pronounced /ˈɒksɨdʒɨn/, from the Greek roots ὀξύς (acid, literally "sharp," from the taste of acids) and -γενής (-genēs) (producer, literally begetter) is the element with atomic number 8 and represented by the symbol O. It is a member of the chalcogen group on the periodic table, and is a highly reactive in the blood Blood is a specialized bodily fluid that delivers necessary substances to the body's cells — such as nutrients and oxygen — and transports waste products away from those same cells but strongly related to the amount of carbon dioxide Carbon dioxide is a chemical compound composed of two oxygen atoms covalently bonded to a single carbon atom. It is a gas at standard temperature and pressure and exists in Earth's atmosphere in this state. During apnea, the oxygen in the body is used by the cells The cell is the structural and functional unit of all known living organisms. It is the smallest unit of an organism that is classified as living, and is often called the building block of life. Some organisms, such as most bacteria, are unicellular . Other organisms, such as humans, are multicellular. (Humans have an estimated 100 trillion or 1014, and excreted as carbon dioxide. Thus, the level of oxygen in the blood decreases, and the level of carbon dioxide increases. Increasing carbon dioxide levels lead to a stronger and stronger breathing reflex, up to the breath-hold breakpoint, at which the victim can no longer voluntarily hold his or her breath. This typically occurs at an arterial partial pressure In a mixture of ideal gases, each gas has a partial pressure which is the pressure which the gas would have if it alone occupied the volume. The total pressure of a gas mixture is the sum of the partial pressures of each individual gas in the mixture of carbon dioxide of 55 mm Hg, but may differ significantly from individual to individual and can be increased through training.

The breath-hold break point can be suppressed or delayed either intentionally or unintentionally. Hyperventilation In medicine, hyperventilation is the state of breathing faster and/or deeper than necessary, bringing about lightheadedness and other undesirable symptoms often associated with panic attacks. Hyperventilation can also be a response to metabolic acidosis, a condition that causes acidic blood pH levels before any dive, deep or shallow, flushes out carbon dioxide in the blood resulting in a dive commencing with an abnormally low carbon dioxide level; a potentially dangerous condition known as hypocapnia Hypocapnia or hypocapnea also known as hypocarbia, sometimes incorrectly called acapnia, is a state of reduced carbon dioxide in the blood. Hypocapnia usually results from deep or rapid breathing, known as hyperventilation. The level of carbon dioxide in the blood after hyperventilation may then be insufficient to trigger the breathing reflex later in the dive and a blackout may occur without warning and before the diver feels any urgent need to breathe. This can occur at any depth and is common in distance breath-hold divers in swimming pools A shallow water blackout is a loss of consciousness caused by cerebral hypoxia towards the end of a breath-hold dive in water typically shallower than five metres , when the swimmer does not necessarily experience an urgent need to breathe and has no other obvious medical condition that might have caused it. Victims are often established. Hyperventilation is often used by both deep and distance free-divers to flush out carbon dioxide from the lungs to suppress the breathing reflex for longer. It is important not to mistake this for an attempt to increase the body's oxygen store. The body at rest is fully oxygenated by normal breathing and cannot take on any more. Breath holding in water should always be supervised by a second person, as by hyperventilating, one increases the risk of shallow water blackout because insufficient carbon dioxide levels in the blood fail to trigger the breathing reflex.

The reaction to water inhalation

If water enters the airways The airways are those parts of the respiratory system through which air flows, to get from the external environment to the alveoli of a conscious victim the victim will try to cough up the water or swallow it thus inhaling more water involuntarily. Upon water entering the airways, both conscious and unconscious victims experience laryngospasm In medicine, laryngospasm is an uncontrolled/involuntary muscular contraction of the laryngeal cords. The condition typically lasts less than 30 or 60 seconds, and causes a partial blocking of breathing in, while breathing out remains easier. It may be triggered when the vocal cords or the area of the trachea below the cords detects the entry of, that is the larynx The larynx , colloquially known as the voicebox, is an organ in the neck of mammals involved in protection of the trachea and sound production. The larynx houses the vocal folds, and is situated just below where the tract of the pharynx splits into the trachea and the esophagus or the vocal cords The vocal folds, also known commonly as vocal cords, are composed of twin infoldings of mucous membrane stretched horizontally across the larynx. They vibrate, modulating the flow of air being expelled from the lungs during phonation in the throat constrict and seal the air tube The traceartes, or windpipe, is a tube that has an inner diameter of about 20-25 mm and a length of about 10-16 cm in humans. It commences at the larynx and bifurcates into the primary (main) bronchi (at the vertebral level of T4/T5 in humans) in mammals, and from the pharynx to the syrinx in birds, allowing the passage of air to the lungs. It is. This prevents water from entering the lungs. Because of this laryngospasm, water enters the stomach in the initial phase of drowning and very little water enters the lungs. Unfortunately, this can interfere with air entering the lungs, too. In most victims, the laryngospasm relaxes some time after unconsciousness and water can enter the lungs causing a "wet drowning". However, about 10-15% of victims maintain this seal until cardiac arrest, this is called "dry drowning" as no water enters the lungs. In forensic pathology, water in the lungs indicates that the victim was still alive at the point of submersion. Absence of water in the lungs may be either a dry drowning or indicates a death before submersion.

Unconsciousness

A continued lack of oxygen in the brain, hypoxia, will quickly render a victim unconscious usually around a blood partial pressure of oxygen of 25-30mmHg. An unconscious victim rescued with an airway still sealed from laryngospasm stands a good chance of a full recovery. Artificial respiration is also much more effective without water in the lungs. At this point the victim stands a good chance of recovery if attended to within minutes. Latent hypoxia is a special condition leading to unconsciousness where the partial pressure of oxygen in the lungs under pressure at the bottom of a deep free-dive is adequate to support consciousness but drops below the blackout threshold as the water pressure decreases on the ascent, usually close to the surface as the pressure approaches normal atmospheric pressure. A blackout on ascent like this is called a deep water blackout.

Cardiac arrest and death

The brain cannot survive long without oxygen and the continued lack of oxygen in the blood combined with the cardiac arrest will lead to the deterioration of brain cells causing first brain damage and eventually brain death from which recovery is generally considered impossible. A lack of oxygen or chemical changes in the lungs may cause the heart to stop beating; this cardiac arrest stops the flow of blood and thus stops the transport of oxygen to the brain. Cardiac arrest used to be the traditional point of death but at this point there is still a chance of recovery. The brain will die after approximately six minutes without oxygen but special conditions may prolong this (see 'cold water drowning' below). Freshwater contains less salt than blood and will therefore be absorbed into the blood stream by osmosis. In animal experiments this was shown to change the blood chemistry and led to cardiac arrest in 2 to 3 minutes. Sea water is much saltier than blood. Through osmosis water will leave the blood stream and enter the lungs thickening the blood. In animal experiments the thicker blood requires more work from the heart leading to cardiac arrest in 8 to 10 minutes. However, autopsies on human drowning victims show no indications of these effects and there appears to be little difference between drownings in salt water and fresh water. After death, rigor mortis will set in and remains for about two days, depending on many factors including water temperature.

Secondary drowning

This section's factual accuracy is disputed. Please see the relevant discussion on the talk page. (March 2008)

Water, regardless of its salt content, will damage the inside surface of the lung, collapse the alveoli and cause pulmonary edema with a reduced ability to exchange air. This may cause death up to 72 hours after a near drowning incident. This is called secondary drowning. Inhaling certain poisonous vapors or gases will have a similar effect.

Freshwater can be more dangerous than saltwater in secondary drowning. When fresh water enters the lungs it is pulled into the pulmonary circulation via the alveoli because of the low capillary hydrostatic pressure and high colloid osmotic pressure. Consequently, the plasma is diluted and the hypotonic environment causes red blood cells to burst (hemolysis). The resulting elevation of plasma K+ level and depression of Na+ level, due to the hemolysis, alter the electrical activity of the heart. Ventricular fibrilation often occurs as a result of these electrolyte changes. Additionally, if drowning occurs in very cold water ( <10o C), the uptake of cold water into the vascular system can stop the heart. In open heart surgery, the technique of pouring cold saline solution over the heart is used to slow down enzymes in destroying the cells of the heart. If the victim is resuscitated death can occur hours later due to renal failure. During hemolysis, hemoglobin is also released into the plasma which can accumulate in the kidneys leading to acute renal failure. In contrast, salt-water drowning does not lead to uptake of inspired water into the vascular system because it is isotonic to blood. Therefore, no hydrolysis occurs and the cause of death is asphyxia.

Rescue and treatment

Many pools and designated bathing areas either have lifeguards, a pool safety camera system for local or remote monitoring, or computer aided drowning detection. However, bystanders play an important role in drowning detection and either intervention or the notification of authorities by phone or alarm. No person should attempt a rescue that is beyond his or her ability or level of training.

If a drowning occurs or a swimmer becomes missing, bystanders should immediately call for help. The lifeguard should be called if present. If not, emergency medical services and paramedics should be contacted as soon as possible.

The first step in rescuing a drowning victim is to ensure your own safety. Then bring the victim's mouth and nose above the water surface. For further treatment it is advisable to remove the victim from the water. Conscious victims may panic and thus hinder rescue efforts. Often, a victim will cling to the rescuer and try to pull himself out of the water, submerging the rescuer in the process. To avoid this, it is recommended that the rescuer approach the panicking victim with a buoyant object, or from behind, twisting the victim's arm on the back to restrict movement. If the victim pushes the rescuer under water, the rescuer should dive downwards to escape the victim.

Actively drowning victims do not usually call out for help simply because they lack the air to do so. It is necessary to breathe to yell. Human physiology does not allow the body to waste any air when starving for it. They rarely raise their hands out of the water. They use the surface of the water to push themselves up in an attempt to get their mouths out of the water. Lifting arms out of the water always pushes the head down. Head low in the water, occasionally bobbing up and down is another common sign of active drowning.

There can be splashing involved during drowning, usually a butterfly like stroke where the hands barely clear the waters surface, and sometimes victims can look like they are climbing an invisible ladder in the water.

Extenuating factors such as increased levels of stress, secondary injuries, and environmental factors can increase the likelihood of distress and/or drowning in persons who end up overboard. It is important that you recognize the behaviors associated with aquatic distress and drowning, so you can make informed decisions during emergencies.

Signs or behaviors associated with drowning or near-drowning:

After successfully approaching the victim, negatively buoyant objects such as a weight belt are removed. The priority is then to transport the victim to the water's edge in preparation for removal from the water. The victim is turned on his or her back. A secure grip is used to tow panicking victims from behind, with both rescuer and victim lying on their backs, and the rescuer swimming a breaststroke kick. A cooperative victim may be towed in a similar fashion held at the armpits, and the victim may assist with a breaststroke kick. An unconscious victim may be pulled in a similar fashion held at the chin and cheeks, ensuring that the mouth and nose is well above the water.

There is also the option of pushing a cooperative victim lying on his or her back with the rescuer swimming on his or her belly and pushing the feet of the victim, or both victim and rescuer lying on the belly, with the victim hanging from the shoulders of the rescuers. This has the advantage that the rescuer can use both arms and legs to swim breaststroke, but if the victim pushes his or her head above the water, the rescuer may get pushed down. This method is often used to retrieve tired swimmers. If the victim wears lifejacket, buoyancy compensator, or other flotation device that stabilizes his or her position with the face up, only one hand of the rescuer is needed to pull the victim, and the other hand may provide forward movement or may help in rescue breathing while swimming, using for example a snorkel.

Special care has to be taken for victims with suspected spinal injuries, and a back board (spinal board) may be needed for the rescue. In water, CPR is ineffective, and the goal should be to bring the victim to a stable ground quickly and then to start CPR.

If the approach to a stable ground includes the edge of a pool without steps or the edge of a boat, special techniques have been developed for moving the victim over the obstacle. For pools, the rescuer stands outside, holds the victim by his or her hands, with the victim's back to the edge. The rescuer then dips the victim into the water quickly to achieve an upward speed of the body, aiding with the lifting of the body over the edge. Lifting a victim over the side of a boat may require more than one person. Special techniques are also used by the coast guard and military for helicopter rescues.

After reaching dry ground, all victims should be referred to medical assistance, especially if unconscious or if even small amounts of water have entered the lungs. An unconscious victim may need artificial respiration or CPR. If this is the case, it is recommended that the patient be positioned on their back with the head level to the body. The goal should be to perform chest compressions if the patient is pulseless, and if the patient isn't breathing to push air into the lungs even though the lungs may be filled with some amount of water.[6]

The Heimlich maneuver is not recommended;[7] the technique may have relevance in situations where airways are obstructed by solids but not fluids. Performing the manoeuver on drowning victims not only delays ventilation but may induce vomiting, which if aspirated will place the patient in a far worse situation. Moreover, the use of the Heimlich manoeuvre in any choking situation, involving solids or fluids, has become controversial and is generally no longer taught. For more information on this debate refer to the article Henry Heimlich.

100% oxygen is neither recommended nor discouraged[8]. Treatment for hypothermia may also be necessary. Water in the stomach need not be removed, except in the case of paediatric drownings as a gastric distension can limit movement of the lungs. Other injuries should also be treated (see first aid). Victims that are alert, awake, and intact have nearly a 100% survival rate.

Drowning victims should be treated even if they have been submerged for a long time. The rule "no patient should be pronounced dead until warm and dead" applies. Children in particular have a good chance of survival in water up to 3 minutes, or 10 minutes in cold water (10 to 15 °C or 50 to 60 °F). Submersion in cold water can slow the metabolism drastically. There are rare but documented cases of survivable submersion for extreme lengths of time. In one case a child named Michelle Funk survived drowning after being submerged in cold water for 70 minutes. In another, an 18 year old man survived 38 minutes under water. This is known as cold water drowning.

Prevention

Children have drowned in buckets and toilets

The reduction of drowning through education and basic prevention steps, has become a necessity. Training information can be found through the following organizations Star Fish Aquatics, Jeff Ellis and Associates, through the local chapter of then American Red Cross and many other local organizations.

Training emphasises to help prevent drowning:

Common sense around the water to help prevent Drowning:

Emphasis may be needed in these areas to help prevent drowning:

As a method of execution

In Europe, drowning was used -- more often than hanging, even -- as capital punishment, at least for a time. In fact, during the Middle Ages, a sentence of death was read using the words "cum fossa et furca," or "with drowning-pit and gallows." Commonly, women who were convicted of theft were drowned[citation needed]. Furthermore, drowning was used as a way to determine if a woman was a witch. The idea was that witches would float and the innocent would drown. For more details, see trial by drowning. It is understood that drowning was used as the least brutal form of execution, and was therefore reserved primarily for women, although favorable men were executed in this way as well.

Drowning survived as a method of execution in Europe until the 17th and 18th centuries. England had abolished the practice by 1623, Scotland by 1685, Switzerland in 1652, Austria in 1776, Iceland in 1777, and Russia by the beginning of the 1800s. France revived the practice during the French Revolution (1789–1799) and was carried out by Jean Baptiste Carrier at Nantes. [9]

See also

Vasily Perov: The drowned, 1867

References

  1. ^ a b Lunetta, P. & Modell, J.H. (2005): Macropathological, Microscopical, and Laboratory Findings in Drowning Victims. In: Tsokos, M. (ed.): Forensic Pathology Reviews, Vol. 3. Humana Pres Inc.; Totowa, NJ, pp.: 4-77.
  2. ^ Dueker CW, Brown SD (eds) (1999). "Near Drowning Workshop. 47th Undersea and Hyperbaric Medical Society Workshop". UHMS Publication Number WA292.: 63. http://archive.rubicon-foundation.org/8024. Retrieved on 2009-04-26.
  3. ^ a b c Centers for Disease Control, Resources for TV Writers and Producers
  4. ^ Lundgren, Claus EG; Ferrigno, Massimo (eds). (1985). Physiology of Breath-hold Diving. 31st Undersea and Hyperbaric Medical Society Workshop.. UHMS Publication Number 72(WS-BH)4-15-87.. Undersea and Hyperbaric Medical Society. http://archive.rubicon-foundation.org/7992. Retrieved on 2009-04-24.
  5. ^ Mackensen GB, McDonagh DL, Warner DS (March 2009). "Perioperative hypothermia: use and therapeutic implications". J. Neurotrauma 26 (3): 342–58. doi:10.1089/neu.2008.0596. PMID 19231924.
  6. ^ "Statements on Positioning a Patient on a sloping Beach". International Life Saving Federation. http://www.ilsf.org/medical/statements/sloping-beach-positioning. Retrieved on 2009-01-25.
  7. ^ [1]
  8. ^ "2005 ILCOR resuscitation guidelines" (PDF). Circulation 112 (22 supplement). November 29, 2005. doi:10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.105.166480 (inactive 2008-06-28). http://circ.ahajournals.org/cgi/reprint/112/22_suppl/III-115.pdf. Retrieved on 2008-02-17. "There is insufficient evidence to recommend for or against the use of oxygen by the first aid provider.".
  9. ^ (web site) 1911 Encyclopedia: Drowning and life-saving. April 21, 2008. http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Drowning_and_life_saving. Retrieved on 2008-04-21.

External links

Look up drown in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
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Disciplines: Professional diving · Police diving · Military diving · Underwater photography · Underwater videography
Hazards: Decompression sickness · Nitrogen narcosis · Oxygen toxicity · Barotrauma · Hyperbaric medicine · Drowning · Shallow water blackout · Deep water blackout · High pressure nervous syndrome · Dysbaric osteonecrosis
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Two years ago this month, another Montgomery child and a friend of Tyler's, Skylan Cambrie, drowned in a backyard pool. The Consumer Product Safety Commission estimates 300 children under age five drown in pools every year. Allan Barber with the East ...
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Q. I was wondering how does lifeguard pull drowning victims to safety. When i practice saving my friend from a 6ft pool. Their body weight is kinda heavy and i end up sinking their face in the pool. I did the scissor kick and let their head rest on my shoulder but they still sink? I don't know what i did wrong.
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A. I'm a Red Cross certified lifeguard. When we save people we have tubes or a device that floats so that helps the other person flat while we swim them to the wall. Also if they can you can ask them to help you swim to the wall if they can. The kick that we are told to use the whip kick which is either the side stroke kick or the breaststroke kick. You also have to be a pretty strong swimmer to save them. As far as holding them there are multiple ways to save them the two main ones are where you put your arms under their arms with your arms bent up and if you have the floatation device then you can put one of their arms over the device and yours over theirs and use your other arm to pull you guys over to safety. If you need examples of the… [cont.]
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