title: Silent struggle.
abstract: The past 40-50 years of research and experience have given us improved knowledge of the pathophysiology and treatment of drowning injuries. Still, an all-too-common event, the morbidity and mortality of drowning can be mitigated by prevention, recognition and target treatment. Old terms, such as "near drowning" and "secondary drowning," are confusing and misleading, and use of these terms should be abandoned. Most importantly, EMS personnel should understand that drowning is a hypoxic event resulting from submersion in a liquid. Most BLS and ALS strategies are designed to treat cardiac causes of respiratory and cardiac arrests (with recent change to a CAB algorithm). Drowning, however, is initially a purely hypoxic event and should be treated as such with ventilation and oxygenation (with an ABC algorithm). EMS and the fire service, because of their presence in the community, are uniquely positioned to play a major role in drowning prevention and treatment.
authors.affiliation: University of Nevada School of Medicine, USA. USA. Justin@lifeguardswithoutborders.org
authors.forename: Justin
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Sempsrott
authors.forename: Andrew
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Schmidt
authors.forename: Seth
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hawkins
authors.forename: Bryan
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Bledsoe
mesh_terms: D004332:Drowning; D004632:Emergency Medical Services / Q000458:organization & administration*; D004638:Emergency Treatment / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D015701:Near Drowning