Secondary Drowning

One of the bloggers I follow regularly (Delighted Momma) had a bad scare a week back where her littlest had a “Secondary drowning” scare. Never heard of secondary drowning? Yeah, neither had she (or I) and that’s possibly the scariest part. Thanks to her sharing the story, though, it made headlines in a lot of news outlets recently to raise awareness. I want to do the same, just in case you hadn’t come across it already. Secondary drowning happens after a drowning scare, when we’d normally be lulled into a false sense of security about the event “being over.” Here’s a little information that you need to be aware of and signs/symptoms to look out for.

When a child (or adult, for that matter) has a drowning scare, we tend to become relieved once they’re safely on dry land and breathing normal again. In reality, though, the water that they inhaled during the scare can still do serious, if not fatal, damage. When a child has a near drowning incident, the water they aspirate collects in the lungs and makes it difficult to breath. The water can also cause chemical pneumonia if the incident happened in a chemically-treated water source (pools or spas). A dry drowning can even occur, where the larynx can close up to stop more water from entering the lung, but also cutting off air.

All children who experience a near-drowning incident should be brought to the hospital immediately to be checked out, and observed at home for at least 24 hours. Here is a list, however, of signs and symptoms of secondary drowning:

• persistent coughing
• shortness of breath
• unusual fatigue
• high fever
  
• irritation in the throat and chest
• dizziness