How to know when someone is in trouble in the water • Hacker News Board

Re: How to know when someone is in trouble in the water

#51

Post by mistercow » Fri, Jun 21, 2013, 5:49 PM UTC

Mindless2112 wrote: post #22

I spent a couple of summers as a lifeguard at a college swimming pool, and I have seen this first-hand. As a lifeguard, I was well trained in how to rescue but not particularly well trained in how to recognize a drowning victim. There was a time I watched a boy bobbing up and down in the water, looking upward, mouth open, but not appearing to gasp for breath, the whole time wondering if he was in trouble. Luckily he…

>She displayed the TV-portrayed signs of drowning after jumping off the diving board with no idea how to swim. Probably due to the adrenaline rush, the rescue is a bit fuzzy, but that's where the lifeguard training kicks in.

My guess is that the reason was that she was not drowning yet. She probably would have if you hadn't saved her, but in her case she had a few pre-drowning moments in which to react. The difference would be that she consciously knew that she was screwed as soon as she was in the water, since she didn't know how to swim.

Re: How to know when someone is in trouble in the water

#52

Post by ivank » Fri, Jun 21, 2013, 5:52 PM UTC

Filligree wrote: post #48

ivank wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm guessing this happens when a designer has a bright LCD screen and thinks black on white has too much contrast.

Which is often the case. Reading pure-black on pure-white hurts my eyes, so I often have to tune this knob the other way. The actual problem is the lack of a brightness-controlled colorspace.

If it hurts your eyes, why not turn down the brightness and/or set up f.lux or redshift?

Re: How to know when someone is in trouble in the water

#53

Post by pcrh » Fri, Jun 21, 2013, 6:00 PM UTC

rdl wrote: post #21

spullara wrote: post #10

This device on IndieGogo seems really promising: http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/the-seal-wearable-swim-mon... It is just too easy not to notice a drowning person, especially a child, even if they are right in front of you.

How does it work? I assume it's a water pressure sensor which requires more than a foot or two of water to activate, and some kind of timer, combined with the transmitter? (otherwise a collar doesn't really work -- I can keep my neck immersed in water all day and not drown...)

From another site [1], it seems as if it monitors the amount of time spent underwater, and is activated if this exceeds a preset amount of time.

[1] http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2013/05/28/seal_syst...

Re: How to know when someone is in trouble in the water

#54

Post by chetanahuja » Fri, Jun 21, 2013, 6:02 PM UTC

mcclung wrote: post #34

mikeryan wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Approach a drowning person from behind and hold them above the water by their armpits Unless you're a trained lifeguard this is poor advice. As stated above you don't want to get within touching/grabbing distance of a drowning person. Get some sort of intermediary between you and them, a stick, rope, shirt, pants whatever. Something that you can drop if you are at risk. To the point below about their instincts of not…

I had a lady next to me start to drown and grab me in a pool when I was getting my diving certification. Despite having a supply of air, wetsuit, fins and buoyancy control device on, she got that drowning sensation when her respirator came out. Once she had someone to hold onto, sanity was restored but I totally got why drowning people are dangerous from then on.

Wow... whoever this person is, I sincerely hope they were not certified (in that attempt). This person is almost guaranteed to lose it at the first minor hassle (say getting wrapped in kelp) underwater.

Re: How to know when someone is in trouble in the water

#55

Post by chetanahuja » Fri, Jun 21, 2013, 6:08 PM UTC

crescentfresh wrote: post #42

kaoD wrote: post #18

I can confirm the article. Almost drowned once in a river: I let myself go with the current and, once I tried swimming back, realized I accidentally went into strong currents. I tried swimming harder, but eventually got tired and sunk. Despite my friends being about 20/30 meters away from me, they didn't realize I was drowning. I couldn't scream for help nor do anything but trying to stick my head out and breathe. I…

Glad you made it. I had a similar experience, in strong currents. It was a long time ago but I cannot think of it without my heart racing and panicking all over again.

This. Strong currents in natural bodies of water (rivers, ocean... even close to the beach) will overwhelm even the strongest swimmers/divers. Overconfidence will kill you, literally.

Re: How to know when someone is in trouble in the water

#56

Post by [deleted] » Fri, Jun 21, 2013, 6:09 PM UTC

minikites wrote: post #3

This get re-published every summer for good reason. Drowning happens frequently and it's theoretically preventable if people knew what to look for. Also, be careful if you have to save a drowning person. The drowning response will cause them to instinctively push you under in an effort to get above water, so make sure you have your own floatation device so they don't end up drowning you.

[deleted]

Re: How to know when someone is in trouble in the water

#57

Post by pjungwir » Fri, Jun 21, 2013, 6:10 PM UTC

mikeryan wrote: post #20

ender7 wrote: post #6

Beware: it is very dangerous to attempt to rescue a full-grown person who is drowning. A person who is drowning has temporarily lost their mind and will happily drown their would-be rescuer in an attempt to stay above the water. Approach a drowning person from behind and hold them above the water by their armpits.

Approach a drowning person from behind and hold them above the water by their armpits Unless you're a trained lifeguard this is poor advice. As stated above you don't want to get within touching/grabbing distance of a drowning person. Get some sort of intermediary between you and them, a stick, rope, shirt, pants whatever. Something that you can drop if you are at risk. To the point below about their instincts of not…

When I was in Boy Scouts they said if a drowning person was pushing you under, you should dive to make them let go. Anyone with experience know if that works?

Re: How to know when someone is in trouble in the water

#58

Post by WA » Fri, Jun 21, 2013, 6:11 PM UTC

ender7 wrote: post #6

Beware: it is very dangerous to attempt to rescue a full-grown person who is drowning. A person who is drowning has temporarily lost their mind and will happily drown their would-be rescuer in an attempt to stay above the water. Approach a drowning person from behind and hold them above the water by their armpits.

If the drowning person puts you in danger, because he/she clings too tight and there's a risk that both of you will drown, the solution is to punch or even break their nose to cause a shock so that the person lets go. Or pull/push him/her under water and wait until they are unconscious and then attempt to rescue.

Re: How to know when someone is in trouble in the water

#59

Post by noja » Fri, Jun 21, 2013, 6:15 PM UTC

mikeryan wrote: post #20

ender7 wrote: post #6

Beware: it is very dangerous to attempt to rescue a full-grown person who is drowning. A person who is drowning has temporarily lost their mind and will happily drown their would-be rescuer in an attempt to stay above the water. Approach a drowning person from behind and hold them above the water by their armpits.

Approach a drowning person from behind and hold them above the water by their armpits Unless you're a trained lifeguard this is poor advice. As stated above you don't want to get within touching/grabbing distance of a drowning person. Get some sort of intermediary between you and them, a stick, rope, shirt, pants whatever. Something that you can drop if you are at risk. To the point below about their instincts of not…

Your best bet is to knock them unconscious, them pull them safely to shore. It's safer for both of you.

Edit: actually perhaps not the best idea.

Re: How to know when someone is in trouble in the water

#60

Post by JoelSutherland » Fri, Jun 21, 2013, 6:20 PM UTC

dspeyer wrote: post #16

color: rgb(102,102,102) Seriously? Why do so many publishers make their content so hard to read? (Once I fixed that with inspectElement, the article was good.)

You're using chrome on windows right? The linked URL is their mobile site and the text container has been 3dtransformed forcing grayscale antialiasing which Chrome does poorly.

Check it out on Firefox or IE and you'll see what I mean.

It will look much better on a mobile device as well. If you drop "mobile." from the url you'll get their normal desktop site which also has much better type in Windows Chrome.