Comments on: The latest thing to be scared of: Secondary drowning

By: Rob

Rob — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 12:12:55 +0000

It would have been froth. Usually after experiencing a near-drowning episode, most life guards will urge the person to go the hospital to make sure that secondary drowning can be caught before it becomes an issue. The fluid will show up in the lungs on an x-ray. Oddly enough, when the series first came out, and I was bored enough to watch, there was an case of this on Baywatch. It freaked me out so I went and got info on it from a life guard friend of mine

By: greg laden

greg laden — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 22:23:33 +0000

It could be froth. I’ve seen the froth, and I would have never described it as spongy. But if spongy means “lots of holes (like bubbles?) as opposed to spongy in a tactile sense then yes, froth seems likely.

By: Jeb, FCD

Jeb, FCD — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 22:17:23 +0000

The spongy thing was probably froth.

By: greg laden

greg laden — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 22:08:36 +0000

I have looked around for an explanation of the spongy material and have not found anything.

By: greg laden

greg laden — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 22:03:07 +0000

Well, I AM a doctor, and I would say that it depends on how you frame the question.(OK, OK, I’m a doctor of Philosophy…)But that is a good question, and I hope someone will chime in with an answer. I would imagine that a factor could be what the liquid does in the way of causing a reaction vs. sneaking around in the lungs drowning you…

By: Capri

Capri — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 22:01:18 +0000

Why was his face covered in the white spongy material? I kept reading the article thinking they would say why that would happen, but I didn’t see anything. I could have missed it.

By: Joshua Zelinsky

Joshua Zelinsky — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 21:41:50 +0000

I’m not a doctor, but I’ve been told that secondary drowning is more of a danger in a pool than in open ocean, something to do with the chlorine content. Is this true?

By: longsmith

longsmith — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 13:52:28 +0000

I am SO glad I didn’t know about this when my kids were little. We spent a lot of time at a lake and they started swimming at like age 2. Yikes.

By: Greg Laden

Greg Laden — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 13:25:29 +0000

Paul: Thanks for the comments. Clearly the numbers are screwed up here (a quick foray to the CDC site shows this) but I am not at all clear on what the correct numbers would be.Also, since water can cause the laryngospasm reflex that can then cause dry drowning, there may actually be an overlap in the physiology.But I agree with you that this story is not a story about dry drowning. It is about secondary drowning.So, I change the title but kept the rest of the post the same with an added note to see the comments for further confusion, ah, clarification.

By: Paul Schofield

Paul Schofield — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 12:59:34 +0000

Oh, and if you weren’t quite scared enough, it is 72 hours, not 24.Also I believe that 10% figure is for true dry drowning, not secondary drowning. That suggests that both MSNBC and the expert were getting their terms confused when they were reporting on this. The medicine is right, the terms and numbers wrong.