What is dry drowning?

In the summer, many families like to take their children to the swimming pool to swim, which can achieve a good cooling effect. At this time, parents should pay attention to preventing their children from drowning. For example, dry drowning often catches people off guard. Dry drowning refers to spasms in the throat, leading to respiratory obstruction, causing suffocation and even death.

1 Characteristics of dry drowning

Dry drowning refers to laryngeal spasm and airway obstruction, resulting in death by suffocation. When the laryngeal spasm occurs, it can cause reflex cardiac arrest, or it can cause cardiac arrest due to suffocation or myocardial hypoxia.

These patients have no or only a small amount of water in their lungs. Most drowning victims suffer from dry drowning or small amounts of water entering the lungs. When dry drowning occurs, the first symptoms to appear are dry lips, difficulty breathing, swelling of the face, drowsiness, fatigue, etc., followed by coma, suffocation, and even drowning.

From the perspective of pathogenesis, it mainly causes cerebral edema and post-asphyxial reflex malignant arrhythmia and cardiac arrest. However, there are also a small number of patients who, after being rescued to the shore, only inhale a small amount of water into their lungs. On the surface, there are no obvious abnormalities in their early state of consciousness, breathing, oxygenation, and circulation. However, they develop severe respiratory distress or even life-threatening conditions several hours or even 72 hours later. This is called "secondary drowning," which is actually a continuous pathological change process after drowning.

The mechanism is currently unclear, but it may be related to water entering the lungs and destroying the lung surfactant. Dry drowning often occurs in swimming beginners, especially children. Sometimes, children will choke on water that enters their lungs without realizing it, but there will be no abnormalities at first. However, slowly, lung function will be affected, followed by symptoms such as fatigue, sore throat, cough, and difficulty breathing. If parents find that their children have these symptoms, they must send them to the hospital for treatment in time, otherwise the child may foam at the mouth and die.

2 How to provide first aid for dry drowning

1. Clear out debris from the body. If you discover dry drowning, you must promptly remove debris from the body to avoid blocking the airway and causing suffocation. Place the drowning victim's abdomen on the rescuer's bent thighs, with the head down, and press on the back to force the water in the respiratory tract and stomach out. However, the time should not be too long otherwise it will delay cardiac resuscitation.

2. Cardiopulmonary resuscitation should be performed as quickly as possible by performing mouth-to-mouth breathing and external chest compressions. The amount of air blown out during mouth-to-mouth breathing should be large. Perform artificial respiration first to open the airway, and then perform chest compressions. Press the midline at the junction of the middle and lower 1/3 of the sternum, place the base of one palm close to the pressing area on the chest, and place the other palm on the back of this hand. The frequency of compression is at least 100 times/minute, and the ratio of compression to relaxation time is 1:1. The compression depth is 3cm for children aged 5 to 13 years old and 2cm for infants and young children.

3. Timely rescue: If the situation is found to be serious during the first two emergency measures, the patient needs to be sent to the hospital for treatment immediately to avoid delaying the condition. Tips: From the perspective of first aid, unlike ordinary drowning, dry drowning does not require "water control" rescue, but immediate cardiopulmonary resuscitation. You need to perform artificial respiration first, open the airway, and then perform chest compressions. If the drowning person has no heartbeat, chest compressions should be performed first. But the most important thing is to send the child to the hospital and not miss the most important golden time for saving the child.