ER Doctors Are Sick of Hearing the Term ‘Dry Drowning’ (Newser.com)
By Elizabeth Armstrong Moore, Newser Staff
There have been many reports lately about so-called “dry drowning,” “delayed drowning,” or “secondary drowning,” like when a boy in Texas died several days after swimming last month. But many experts, including emergency room doctors, the World Health Organization, the Red Cross, and the CDC, say there’s a big problem with these terms, which are confusing and “unduly alarming” parents, reports Live Science. Drowning is defined as breathing problems following being submerged or immersed in a liquid, and it doesn’t necessarily kill a person. If it does, it can take minutes, hours, or even days, though lengthy delays are very rare. So-called dry drowning is, in short, just straight-up drowning. As one doctor describes it on her blog, drowning happens when someone aspirates, which is the technical term for something passing the trachea into the lungs. Read more…
Children learn to swim at The Dive Spot on Friday, June 24, 2016, in Abilene, Texas, as part of the World’s Largest Swimming Lesson Event. (Nellie Doneva/The Abilene Reporter-News via AP)Source: http://www.newser.com