Quote :

"The tragic death of a South Carolina 10-year-old more than an hour after he had gone swimming has focused a spotlight on the little-known phenomenon called “dry drowning” — and warning signs that every parent should be aware of. “I’ve never known a child could walk around, talk, speak and their lungs be filled with water,” Cassandra Jackson told NBC News in a story broadcast Thursday on TODAY. On Sunday, Jackson had taken her son, Johnny, to a pool near their home in Goose Creek, S.C. It was the first time he’d ever gone swimming — and, tragically, it would be his last. "

more here: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24982210/


sorry if old, but didn't see anything.

6/5/2008 4:47:58 PM

wow.

back in middle school or so, a family friend lost a 5 year old in Jordan Lake. 2 or 3 other siblings there and both parents all witnessed the end result. it's traumatic i hear

6/5/2008 4:50:29 PM

I call bullshit until someone can explain the mechanism for this.

6/5/2008 4:55:59 PM

it the pool - i don't know. but i do remember something about if you were to inhale a lot of salt water, the salt can dry out and release water in your lungs. that's probably completely wrong, but it was something like that.

6/5/2008 4:58:04 PM

^^his lungs filled with water and interfered with his oxygen supply causing him to become tired. After he fell asleep, his lungs stopped working due to being filled with water.

if you actually read the article it explains it really well.

[Edited on June 5, 2008 at 4:59 PM. Reason : ^]

6/5/2008 4:58:44 PM

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dry_drowning

Wikipedia takes a different position. It refers to different happenings that cause 'dry drowning', and the claim that left over water does it is questionable.

Most questionable is the claim that the left over water deprives the lungs of oxygen. If he could take in enough air one minute then why couldn't he later? Certainly something else happened maybe like the seawater thing ^^ that the news failed reporting on.

[Edited on June 5, 2008 at 5:00 PM. Reason : no, the news totally [fail]ed]

6/5/2008 5:00:15 PM

Quote :

"The tragic death of a South Carolina 10-year-old "

Quote :

"I bathed him, and he told me that he was sleepy"

6/5/2008 5:24:25 PM

getting sleepy after a bath is understandable. I guess thats why the mama didn't realize something was wrong.

6/5/2008 5:32:05 PM

I will not be bathing my fifth grader. Going in the pool counts as a shower anyways.

6/5/2008 5:35:30 PM

^Second

6/5/2008 5:37:23 PM

How much water in the lungs is lethal, and how does it get in there?

6/5/2008 5:41:05 PM

Quote :

"the little-known phenomenon called “dry drowning” — and warning signs that every parent should be aware of."

6/5/2008 5:47:43 PM

How does one not have the urge to cough?

6/5/2008 5:49:57 PM

that's worse than dry humping

6/5/2008 7:37:20 PM

Yeah I don't know how he wouldn't have figured out that he had water in his lungs. I was taught to swim when I was five, and I would cough like a motherfucker if that stuff got anywhere near my lungs (i.e. I was stupid and breathed in wrong while swimming). They also made us get out and made sure we were OK and that we coughed up any business we inhaled when we breathed in water, I think. They had a lot of safety stuff, but I don't remember it that well (my memory is pretty bad up until high school on a lot of things).

This really does suck though, I've never heard of something like this happening.

6/5/2008 7:46:48 PM

Quote :

"Later, she went into his room to check on him. “I walked over to the bed, and his face was literally covered with this spongy white material,” she said. “And I screamed.”"

I understand the dry drowning, but what's the white spongy material she's referring to?

6/5/2008 8:04:49 PM

this is the most counterintuitive and sketchy death I've heard of in a long time. There should be a significant physical effect from something that's about to kill you.

What happened has got to be due to some lung chemistry - not asphyxiation from physical blocking of the lungs by water. Their explanation has something terribly wrong with it.

6/5/2008 8:22:05 PM

I didn't see the part about the shit all over his face.

That is epically sketchy. Perhaps in his sleep his body started breathing rapidly and the water got all frothy and what he had on his face was a chemical foam from the pool water (shortly before death).

That's real sketchy though...

6/5/2008 9:47:41 PM