Do you know that more than 40 people drown every hour around the world?
And the sad reality is that most of these incidences could have been prevented with proper water safety knowledge and skills.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), an estimated 236,000 cases of drowning occur annually, making it the third leading cause of deaths due to unintentional injury worldwide.
Globally, the highest drowning rates are among children aged between one and four years old, followed by children between the ages of five and nine.
These cases are often associated with a lack of adult supervision.
On the local front, the Fire and Rescue Department received a total of 1,595 distress calls related to drowning incidents for the five-year period from 2018 to 2022.
Of this number, 1,341 cases resulted in death.
So, we still have a long way to go when it comes to creating awareness on drowning, especially among caregivers and parents.
High risk for kids
While most adult drowning cases are intentional (due to suicide) or due to accidents, the majority of drowning cases among children tend to occur in bathtubs and swimming pools, which are seldom cordoned off (e.g. in condominiums).
Curious young children who wander off on their own may end up falling into the water.
“We always tell the caregiver or adult that all small kids must be within an arm’s length when they are in the pool so that it’s easy to grab them if anything happens.
“The kid may call for help, but by the time you fish him out 10 minutes later, he may be gone,” says International SOS Asia regional medical director Dr David Teo Kwang Joo.
In children, drowning is always preventable.
He cites a case of a family that went to a remote place in Bangladesh and stayed in a hotel room with a huge bathtub.
The parents filled the bathtub with water and got the kids to play inside.
“They then turned their attention to another activity and one kid actually drowned because there was no proper grip in the bathtub for him to hold on to.
“The bathtub is designed to be curved, and we got a call that the child was not breathing – the father was crying and didn’t know what to do,” he recalls.
Dr Teo told him to stay calm and switch the phone to speaker mode so that he could guide the wife on how to start cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR).
He adds: “When you panic, you’re at a loss and call whatever number you can.
“At that point, we managed to call the hotel reception and asked them to send help to the room while we activated the ambulance.”
In such places it takes time for the ambulance to arrive, as addresses are not very accurate.
“Chances of survival are slim if you are in the water for more than three minutes without air.
“The child lost his life and it was traumatic for the whole family, but the drowning was totally preventable,” says Dr Teo, who is based in Singapore and oversees International SOS’ 24/7 assistance centres across Asia.
International SOS is a multinational company that provides health and security risk services to organisations such as companies, schools, government agencies and non-governmental organisations (NGOs), among others.
Dr Teo’s team gets calls from many countries, but because they are a distance away and need time to mobilise, they try to get help from local resources such as the lifeguard, hospital, police, etc.
“When we get to the accident site, our job is to activate the nearest hospital to send an ambulance.
“Instead of us doctors going there, we send our counsellors because the victim has most likely passed on.
“But when there is survival, it’s different.
“By the time we arrive, the patient would be in the hospital already, so we liaise with the hospital to bring him home safely,” he explains.
Pay attention
Dr Teo highlights some measures we can all take to prevent drowning:
If we can educate and create awareness among parents and caregivers, we can prevent half the fatalities.
He says: “If your kids don’t know how to swim, don’t just leave them there and enjoy yourself.
“Always keep young children within an arm’s length when they’re in the water.
“For those who can afford it, teach the kid and yourself how to swim, and for those who cannot, the community can step in to help pay for the classes.
“Every person should learn to swim – we’re not talking about a 100m dash, but to swim to safety.”
Remember the rule of threes: a human can usually survive up to three minutes without air, three hours without shelter, three days without water and three weeks without food.
So don’t take your eyes off your child in the water for more than three minutes!
Areas such as swimming pools at condominiums, mining pools, lakes, etc, should be fenced up so that kids cannot roam near the water freely.
Simply putting up warning signs is of no use, as children do not read them.
“Sometimes, the parent will tell the older kid to look after the younger one, especially when they go into open waters.
“You cannot thrust the responsibility on the older child because if something happens to the younger one, the older kid gets blamed.
“You then lose two kids because the older one becomes severely psychologically damaged,” points out Dr Teo.
Also, be extra cautious during floods.
Check the safety regulations of water transportation such as ferries and boats.
Ensure that there is a rescue or evacuation plan in place in the event of a catastrophe.
“We always tell people to choose a proper agent when they do sea transfers – don’t pick the illegal ones because the price is cheaper.
“Many times, there are no life jackets, and if the boat capsizes, the casualty rates are high,” says Dr Teo.
In holiday resorts surrounded by water, drowning is probably due to a secondary condition related to drugs, alcohol, diabetes or injuries that restrict the person from swimming well.
“With diabetes, when they are happily in the water for too long, they forget to manage their sugar and get hypoglycaemic (low blood sugar).
“If they’re insulin-dependent, they gradually become drowsy and unconscious,” says Dr Teo.
In countries where marijuana is easily available, youngsters drink, smoke and party by the poolside or beach.
He adds: “They get into the water and may lose consciousness, but because their friends are also drunk, no one notices anything and another life gets lost.”
Among the occupations that have a higher risk of drowning are fishing, especially fishermen who use smaller boats that have no safety features, and those that involve working offshore and in the sea, e.g. divers.
However, the risk is not so worrisome as governments would usually have done risk assessments on these occupations and put regulations in place to maintain safety for the workers.
A rescuer’s perspective
Dr Teo has done tons of rescue work in a variety of locations, e.g. tunnels and oceans, and after a number of natural disasters, e.g. earthquakes and tsunamis.
These missions – whether successful or not – come with their consequences, especially psychologically.
“It’s not an easy job,” he says.
“Every time I come back, I have some element of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) as I still get flashbacks and it affects me.
“Sometimes, in the middle of the night after an earthquake mission, I feel that the bed is shaking and I start to tremble.”
He then wakes his wife up and tries to address his emotions to calm down.
During missions, he does a daily debriefing with his team so that he can pick up on their feelings and emotions.
“If I detect those with early warning signs of PTSD, I pull them aside and counsel them.
“When we return home, we have a group counselling session with the psychologist.
“We also have a hotline where you can remain anonymous, but the more senior you are, the less likely you will admit to a problem, and that’s a problem,” he says.
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