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Drowning: The silent death

It can happen so quickly. You won't even hear it coming.

By Sumanda Maritz

Pic: iStockphoto.com

Article originally in Parent24

You can’t believe how quickly an accident happens. To tell you the truth I didn’t even hear him fall into the water. Of the 4 grownups sitting under the Lapa chatting, my husband was the only one to hear our 4 year old son almost drown.

We were spending the Sunday at my father’s house. With both a swimming pool and a fishpond, we were very alert as to where the children were and what they were doing. Both our boys are fascinated by water and fish and at one stage I had taken them away from the fishpond for throwing gravel in the water.

Later they asked to look at the fish again and we let them. The fishpond is not that far from where we were sitting. Except for the little dividing wall I was only a meter away from them. While we were talking, my husband suddenly got up and asked which kid had just fallen into the water. I looked through the hole in the wall behind me, to see my oldest son surfacing with a soft gasp and a bit of splashing. My husband raced around the wall and managed to drag our son out of the water by his collar after he went under a second time.

But that wasn’t what scared me. Not the fact that he fell in or that he wasn’t able to stand in the deep fishpond, but that I didn’t hear him. The noises that I had heard, sounded just like the gravel they were throwing in the pond. It was no louder than that. He didn’t cry-out, scream or anything. Just some splashing and a soft gasp. I shudder to think what would have happened if my husband hadn’t heard him.

Of course, he got a talking to. He was undressed, dried off and dressed in dry clothes before we even considered calming him, thanks to the adrenalin rush both mommy and daddy experienced. We also gave him something for the shock. His 2 year old brother had crawled onto the wall of the fishpond to try and help him. He was crying just as hard as his brother after he was pulled out of the water.

I am hoping that this has been a memorable event for both boys and that they will be more careful in future. But just to be on the safe side, I’ve decided to look into drowning for more information.

Have you lost your child to a drowning accident?

Read more on: water | drown | safety

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Alison

6/30/2010 8:15 PM

My precious 3 year old son drowned last year while visiting his biological father. He was left unsupervised with free access to the unfenced open swimming pool. I have no words to describe the depth of my sorrow.... If anyone still wonders about safe guarding a swimming pool or if anyone is contemplating to compromise on child safety, visit my blog. It will give you an idea how terrible it is to lose a child, but only once it has happened, will you really know :( http://ourdannyboy.blogspot.com

Greg

11/19/2009 11:12 AM

We have two small children and our view is that learning to swim in SA is not a luxury - it's a life skill.

Chris

11/18/2009 2:10 PM

Swim schools teach small kids how to get out of a pool if they fall in. Both my kids go for swim lessons and started at an early age even though we don't have a pool. If you can afford it send your kids to a swimming school it's well worth it. Hopefully government will be able to assist and help kids who parents who can't afford swimming lesson to host free lessons at public pools. It's so sad when you hear of a child drowning, I pray the Lord will comfort those parents who have lost a child.

Vrye Denker @Shan

11/5/2009 11:31 AM

You did nothing wrong friend. Accidents happen. Being prepared and responsible (like you were) is all that you can do. There's no sense in wrapping your child in bubble wrap before letting him outside.

Shan

11/3/2009 1:21 PM

I was having a braai at my house with a few neighbours, my friend and I were standing around the fire, and my 18 month boy was playing ball with the neighbour’s 4 year old son. The ladies were in the kitchen, it was the end of summer and we stood with beers in hand and the kids laughing in the background, nothing to care about. We have a large above ground paddling pool 4mx3mx1m in the garden, and the boys were now splashing in the water with their hands, they were in sight of my friend and I, not more than 5meters away. The first round of meat had just gone on the braai (1st slight distraction). I can remember the 'bloop' sound clearly; it was as if someone had dropped a large pebble into the water. It didn’t register immediately what had happened and I was turning the meat (still distracted). I heard my neighbour’s son say ‘Get the ball Rory!’ and as I looked up I asked where Rory is and suddenly realised exactly what had happened. We both got to the pool within seconds and I managed to pull him out just as he was starting to surface for the first time. Now I don’t consider myself to be an irresponsible parent, although I am sure some will say otherwise, but I had spent most of the summer getting him happy to have water on his face with short underwater submerging and generally getting used to being in the pool (I’m sure there are, and will be, long debates as to whether this was right or wrong). I think this may have been 1 aid to his survival the 2nd being the fact that I was within 5 meters of him and was able to retrieve him from the pool so quickly, but I hold myself fully responsible for not being more alert and getting distracted with the braai. Basically what I want to say is, pools are very dangerous, if you have one you need to be extra vigilant when children are nearby. You WON’T hear them fall in, so extra caution needs to be applied. If you have to have one, fence it off. Teach you r children how to swim and don’t ever let them out near a pool on their own.