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| Drowning, Preventing and Treating Victim’s of the Watery Grave |
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by Bob Blumm, MA, PA-C, DFAAPA - June 17, 2011
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Summer is coming upon us, and with it will be the injuries that are called seasonal injuries. This is not a perfect statement as there are areas of this country that experience hot weather throughout the entire year. I live in the northeast and we are subject to the four seasons and are aware that each season brings its own unique types of injuries. I have also spent fifteen of my forty years in practice, working in an emergency department and serving on a trauma team; therefore, I have an intimate relationship to seasonal injuries. Many of the trauma victims that I encountered were aquatic injuries: injuries that took place on the waterways, the canals, the Great South Bay of Long Island and the Atlantic Ocean. Familiarity with the demographics of these areas alert clinicians to the very real fact that events such as drowning rank number three for accidental deaths causing 8-9,000 deaths each year in the USA.
I am the proud grandfather of a beautiful 20-month-old boy, Luke. We are the owners of a home that has a built in pool and a BBQ area as well as plenty of space for the little guy to run around. Last year, before Luke was even walking, my wife, daughter in law and son strongly encouraged us to purchase a pool alarm. Having seen young children age 2 and upwards found dead at the bottom of a pool, we gladly made this purchase. We didn’t follow this edict when our children were toddlers but it sure made sense now. Drowning and near drowning takes place a majority of the time in children under the age of five and then from age 15 to 25. Why do we envision this scenario in these age groups? How often because of a distraction do we leave a young child unsupervised for just two minutes? That’s all it takes to set in motion a life-changing catastrophe. When my son Matt was five years old we were utilizing a patient’s summer home in Vermont and he ran into the kitchen to tell his mother and me that Kristin was swimming underwater in the bathtub. How could this happen as we were good parents? All it took was the time for a bathtub to be filled for the kids’ baths and lack of supervision and somehow she climbed into the tub and fortunately Matt saved his sister’s life. If it happened to me, it can happen to you and it does happen in the best of families with educated parents who had a momentary blind spot.
What about the older group, why is there an increase in mortality and morbidity in this age group? Perhaps because they are young and daring and are unaware of their skills or lack thereof and have no idea about their limitations near pilings of bridges, in waters after a hurricane, in rough surf with strong undertows and rip tides and the lapse of common sense because of drugs or alcohol. Some of the drowning victims in this age group have spent too much time in the water and their problem became hypothermia with associated arrhythmias and a seizure or heart attack. These victims need to be removed from the source (water) and the ABCs instituted immediately. To attempt other means of resuscitation will cause a fatality. I have also witnessed in the past, teenagers jumping or diving off bridges into the water below. Some sustained neck injuries; others TBI, and their neurological deficits were either temporary or permanent. What can we do as Advanced Practice Clinicians to change the statistics and more importantly the sorrow that follows?
We can firstly make the appropriate changes in our homes and not encourage idiotic behavior of our teenagers. We can be totally vigilant of our young toddlers and have the appropriate safety equipment installed. We can refresh our BLS and PALS, as we would never forgive ourselves if we could have made a difference. We must be the enforcers of the “no drinking rule around the pool” as it is no different that drinking and driving. We can warn every parent and teenager just as we do about seat belts and smoking and unprotected sex. That’s what PAs and NPs are about, we educate on prevention so that we are not obliged to deal with negative outcomes that could have been avoided.
Robert M. Blumm has received national recognition as a distinguished fellow of the American Academy of Physician Assistants (AAPA). He is the past president of the Association of Plastic Surgery Physician Assistants, and was past-president of the American Association of Surgical Physician Assistants, past president of the American College of Clinicians and NYSSPA, as well as Chairman of the Surgical Congress of the AAPA. In addition, Bob received the John Kirklin MD Award for Professional Excellence from the American Association of Surgical Physician Assistants. Along with his associate, Dr. Acker, Bob was the first recipient of the AAPA PAragon Physician-PA Partnership Award. He has been a contributing author of three textbooks, written 150 plus articles and is a sought out conference speaker throughout the United States.
The viewpoint expressed in this article is the opinion of the author and is not necessarily the viewpoint of the owners or employees at Healthcare Staffing Innovations, LLC.
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| Caroline |
on 20 Jun 2011 at 4:40 pm |
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Love this, Bob and agree wholeheartedly. I too have the honor of being a grandparent to a toddler and I think I am much more aware of this now, then when my own children were small. I recall once, when I was in the pool with my 1 year old daughter and she was floating in a little inner tube toy that she could sit inside like a baby walker. I was drinking, took my eyes off her briefly, only to turn back and see her upside-down, head in the water and little feet kicking madly in the air. That terrified me to my core.
I have participated in resuscitation attempts for far too many drownings and near drownings of young children in my 25 plus years and I can recall the anguish and despair from every one. So preventable, we must all educate.
Thank you,
Christine |
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