A friend of mine posted this on Facebook, I want to do my part to spread it around. It's a life or death matter to know that drowning people are usually not able to cry out for help. Read carefully and pass it along, especially to anyone with children, or a boat, or a pool or a neighborhood pond, etc. Too many people drown who could be saved. http://mariovittone.com/2010/05/154/

Also on that site is this useful information about lifeguards. http://mariovittone.com/ My sons worked as lifeguards when they were high school kids, and if I'd read this then, I would have paid more attention. I'm pretty sure the pool where they worked was managed according to these guidelines, but many are not.

Have a safe summer, everyone.

Thanks!!

Thank you for this. I will send it onwards to everyone I know. This is about the best description of drowning and what is happening that I've ever seen.

You just might have saved several lives by sharing this.

Thank you for posting that. We live near several lakes and enjoy them in the summer. This past, our community has lost 2 young people to drowning. One was a 14 year old girl and the other was a 24 year old man. Both were good swimmers. So sad and tragic.

Thank you. I remember, as a 5 year old, rolling in the surf 3 times, unable to get myself out. My Mom was about 3 feet from me and thought I was 'riding the wave'. The 3rd time, the surf washed me further up on the beach and left me there. That was my lucky day.

This article will help me this summer when my Grandkids visit.

Thank you for posting...I never knew that :(

Wow. It makes sense after reading it. I've seen it before (close calls not actual drowning just so you know) but, never put two and two completely together.

It's so right about expecting what we see on t.v.

I sent this to my DS and DIL as they have a boat and take the boys 2 and 5 out a lot. Hopefully they never experience this but the info is good to know.

Thank you for posting this, i almost drown as a little girl from one of my friends pulling me under because she was having difficulty swimming, and it is literally about 10 seconds , and you do not surface much, and you can't really call for help. Its nice to be reminded since i have a little one and never want her to go through that ordeal

Thank you for posting, I never knew.

thank you for posting this!

I fully agree..........from a painful experience.
I was watching a party of local people in a pool in Sri Lanka (funny swimming gear of the ladies) when the only "swimmer" got into trouble. The two other men and the ladies and children did not pay any attention, neither my husband who was reading a book.
First I watched in disbelieve and then yelled at his friends. One of them tried to get to him and instantly got into trouble himself rarely able to get back to the rim.
In my stress I was not able to make myself clear to my husband and there was nothing around the pool I could have trown in for the man so I finally jumped in myself. This was not brave - it was very stupid as I am only a good swimmer, no education in lifesaving.

Even then my husband did not react. Later he said, I could not see you, I thought you where behind the man.
I was UNDER the man as he was paniking so badly that he only tried to get on top of me and instead of saving him I had to struggle for my life. My luck was that he passed out before me and I was able to get to the surface to yell my husbands name.
Still not knowing what was going on he was alarmed by the sound of my voice and at least jumped in and came up to me and I had to tell him to get the man out..............
From the struggle my bikini was somewhere and I was not able to move my right arm anymore and while my husband pulled the unconcious man to the rim I had trouble to swim there myself and did not allow the ladies to pull me out before I had my binkini back in place!? No footrest in the pool and only one "working" arm, at least I noticed the man starting to cough.

(Did you know that a lot of women drowned in the second wave of the tsunami, as they did not dare to come out of the water after the first wafe as they where not "properly" dressed anymore!?!?)

By the time I was pulled out of the pool they had Anura on a poolchair and I will never forget the way he looked at me. The bloodvessels in his eyes had bursted and it almost looked like he was crying blood. He was in shock and as the party was not residents of the hotel I thought we would not see them again.
I was in shock myself and couldnt believe, that my husband "watched" me in cold blood drowning without helping me! I was crying half of the night and it took DH quite some effort to calm me down :lol:

The next morning we where suprised by Anura waiting for us to say thank you and I got my first hug from a local man :lol:
He was still a bit shacky and it was (and still is) very emotional. He is a father of three and his youngest was in 2007 one month old.
So we have a "son" in Sri Lanka and we are in contact all year around and meet every year and have a very special relationship with that family.
But as the OP said, he could have drowned only a couple of yards from us if I would not be such a nosy person watching other people instead of reading a book.
Granny

Thanks! Every one needs to know this and I am well educated today.

My son baseball team had a pool party. I was a life saver in my younger days before my child. I had my son swining from the age of 3. But I was not going to let him go with out me! The coach asked each child mother if they could swin and the one that could not had to stay in the shallow end. One mother said yes he learned to swin at the YMCA. My son ran to the slide and so did this child. I watch my son go down and then ran to do it again. He went down again. I then started looking for the other child he was setting on the bottom I called to the coach but he did not he hear me. So I ran an dove into the pool pulled the child out. I had to work with him the rest of the day trying to get him back into the water, so that he would not have a fear of water. I did get him back into the water with the arm rings on. The coach told his mother that he could not swin and what happen. The mother was shocked. She just took thier word that he could swim.