Unrelated, but why does Slate disable pinchzoom for mobile devices?
How to know when someone is in trouble in the water
91–100 of 119 posts
Re: How to know when someone is in trouble in the water
#92This is an excellent article, it was posted around 3 years ago from the original source and there was some great discussion at the time, revolving around some of the questions and opinions currently being discussed here in the comments. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1492835 It's good to see it resurface, definitely one of the more memorable articles I've ever read.
Agreed - the articles and the commentary are fascinating.
Re: How to know when someone is in trouble in the water
#93I worked as a lifeguard in high school and had to save a kid once. I didn't even think he was having trouble until one of the counselors yelled, "DIMINOTEN!" He was taking a swim test and looked just like all the other kids, except he wasn't going anywhere. Being a lifeguard is a silly job. 99.999% of the time you're doing nothing but sitting in a chair, trying not to fall asleep. It's that ONE time when you need to…
what is "diminoten"?
Re: How to know when someone is in trouble in the water
#94I worked as a lifeguard in high school and had to save a kid once. I didn't even think he was having trouble until one of the counselors yelled, "DIMINOTEN!" He was taking a swim test and looked just like all the other kids, except he wasn't going anywhere. Being a lifeguard is a silly job. 99.999% of the time you're doing nothing but sitting in a chair, trying not to fall asleep. It's that ONE time when you need to…
what is "diminoten"?
his name
Re: How to know when someone is in trouble in the water
#95"""How did this captain know—from 50 feet away—what the father couldn’t recognize from just 10? Drowning is not the violent, splashing call for help that most people expect. The captain was trained to recognize drowning by experts and years of experience. The father, on the other hand, had learned what drowning looks like by watching television. (...) Drowning is almost always a deceptively quiet event.""" I think th…
My pet peeve is when people are bleeding to death onscreen as their friends just watch. What a great opportunity to give just a bit of lifesaving information by showing them apply pressure to stop the bleeding.
Re: How to know when someone is in trouble in the water
#96Another bit that makes drowning deceptive is that most of the time the victim will be in relatively shallow water or fairly close to the edge of the pool. If you can't swim its usually hard to get out to deep/open water (unless in a beach break) so a lot of kids that struggle will do so within a foot or two of being able to reach a wall or shallow enough water to stand up in.
Which brings up the obvious advice: if you're going to take your kids to the beach, or to the pool, teach them how to swim! Teach them young enough that they haven't yet developed an instinctive fear of water; then they'll be natural swimmers for life. (I learned to swim at about age 6 months.) If you can't teach them yourself, find a program at the local pool or rec center.
I don't think you really learned to swim at 6 months. At that age you are learning to be comfortable with the water, but you have a ways to go before you can actually swim. Your parents probably told you that you were able to swim because you were successful in whatever they were trying to do at that age.
source: My children are in infant swim classes.
Re: How to know when someone is in trouble in the water
#97This happened to me once in a pool and until I read an article like this I didn't even know I was drowning. I was 5 or 6 and was in a swimming class. I remember going up and down and not being able to say anything or do anything but that. I don't think anyone noticed me but I may be wrong. What saved me was that the pool bottom was slanted so every time I went down I touched it just a bit but enough to push me slowly…
It is really scary to think that you could have drowned in swimming class. I will definitely be attentive of my own children when they are learning. Glad you survived!
Re: How to know when someone is in trouble in the water
#98Earlier quoted context omitted.
Which brings up the obvious advice: if you're going to take your kids to the beach, or to the pool, teach them how to swim! Teach them young enough that they haven't yet developed an instinctive fear of water; then they'll be natural swimmers for life. (I learned to swim at about age 6 months.) If you can't teach them yourself, find a program at the local pool or rec center.
I don't think you really learned to swim at 6 months. At that age you are learning to be comfortable with the water, but you have a ways to go before you can actually swim. Your parents probably told you that you were able to swim because you were successful in whatever they were trying to do at that age. source: My children are in infant swim classes.
I don't think you really learned to swim at 6 months.
You're correct that my statement is only true for certain values of "swim". :) Being comfortable with the water is probably a more accurate description of what's achievable at that age, yes.
However, I used the term "swim" to make the point that what kids learn as infants is just the beginning; to really reduce their risk of drowning, they have to continue advancing to the point where the really can "actually swim". I was at that point by about age 4 1/2.
Re: How to know when someone is in trouble in the water
#99Earlier quoted context omitted.
did you mean to contradict the article or did you not even read it? Throughout the Instinctive Drowning Response, drowning people cannot voluntarily control their arm movements. Physiologically, drowning people who are struggling on the surface of the water cannot stop drowning and perform voluntary movements such as waving for help, moving toward a rescuer, or reaching out for a piece of rescue equipment.
Both the article and the previous commenter are correct. People in late stages of drowning can't swim toward you, but they certainly will grasp on to you when you reach out to rescue them. If this happens, the rescuer will frequently submerge himself and use their legs and arms to forcefully push away from the victim before reengaging from behind. (Source: I was an ocean lifeguard for seven years in high school and c…
Was waiting for someone to say this. They (Surf life saving Australia) teach the same here. I've only ever been involved in board or IRB rescues in real life but the old sea dogs say that it works wonders if they do grab into you: drop like a stone because the last thing a drowning person wants is to be attached to a person who is going under the water given their desperate struggle to keep their head up
Re: How to know when someone is in trouble in the water
#100Some day cameras will monitor what happens in a pool and software will be good enough to figure out when someone is drowning, releasing the nearest floatation device from the bottom of the pool.