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Home › Articles › Toddler Safety › Dry Drowning

Dry Drowning

The Myths and Facts of Delayed Drownings

By Kelly Burgess

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According to Dr. Wilde, these are the two classifications for death from drowning:

  • Drowning is the term used when someone dies from a drowning incident immediately or within 24 hours.
  • The term near-drowning, or delayed drowning, is used when someone has a drowning episode and then dies from the complications of that episode more than 24 hours later. If, for example, the boy had been taken to the hospital and treated but never fully recovered and died days later, it would have been listed as a near or delayed drowning.

    And these are the two ways in which one can drown:

  • In a classic case of drowning, death occurs because the lungs fill with water and the person suffocates on the water in their lungs. Death can be immediate or can occur later as a result of the initial damage to the lungs and respiratory system.
  • In "dry drownings," the act of trying to hold the breath for a prolonged period can cause an involuntary laryngospasm reflex and neither water nor air can be taken into the lungs. Eventually, the person loses consciousness and dies from lack of oxygen, again, a type of suffocation. This happens in 10 to 15 percent of all drowning cases. It can also be triggered, more rarely, by hitting the water forcefully.

    The Warning Signs

    Dr. Russ Horowitz, an attending physician in the emergency department of Children's Memorial Hospital in Chicago, says from what he read about the case of the boy in South Carolina, there was some evidence that he was in respiratory distress immediately after he swallowed or aspirated some water, and that as a result his brain was not getting enough oxygen.


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