Parents, Beware of ‘Dry’ Drowning this Summer

By Anastacia Mott Austin

Ten-year-old Johnny Jackson’s mom didn’t think anything was too out of the ordinary after she and her son returned home from an afternoon of swimming at the local pool.

He did seem extra tired, and had had an accident in his pants, which was unusual. But she chalked it up to a busy afternoon of swimming and consented to his request for a nap.

But a little while later when a friend checked on him, he seemed to have a white liquid coming from his nose and mouth, and was bluish and unresponsive.

Rushed to the hospital, Johnny was pronounced dead of water asphyxiation, or drowning.

While unusual, Berkeley County Coroner Glenn Rhoad said that drowning can actually occur up to 72 hours after a person has aspirated, or breathed in, water.

"I’ve never known a child could walk around, talk, speak and their lungs be filled with water," said Cassandra Jackson , Johnny’s mother, to NBC News reporters.

Of the approximately 3,600 drowning deaths reported in 2005 (the most recent year with available statistics) about 10 to 15 percent of those were classified as secondary, or "dry" drownings, according to the Center for Disease Control (CDC). For children, the most common cause of dry drowning is aspirating some water while taking a bath.

But it can also be caused by breathing in even a small amount of water at a swimming pool.

The symptoms parents should watch for are also difficult to detect and can be easily confused with normal childhood behavior, another reason why Johnny’s mother didn’t notice anything very out of the ordinary for her son.

Difficulty breathing is often the first sign, or unusual tiredness and "strange" behavior. Johnny’s toilet accident could have been a sign that something wasn’t right, and his mother reported he was very sleepy. But, caution experts, sometimes it’s hard to determine the difference between "unusual" fatigue and a child who is simply worn out from a day of sun and swimming.

"The job of the lungs is to get oxygen into the blood and your brain needs oxygen to keep working, so when your brain isn’t getting oxygen, it can start doing funny things," said Dr. Daniel Rauch, a pediatrician at New York University’s Langone Medical Center, on "The Today Show" this week. "One of them is becoming excessively tired, losing consciousness and the inability to be aroused appropriately."

If caught in time, secondary drowning can be treated at a hospital, where a tube would be inserted into the lung to give extra oxygen and time for the lung to drain and heal.

For Cassandra Jackson, she wants all parents to be aware of this strange phenomena, and to "watch your children like a hawk" in the pool and even after they’ve gotten out.

Her advice to parents? "If your child comes out of the pool and seems sleepy or lethargic, watch them very, very closely," said Jackson. "Rush them to the hospital or call 911 immediately. It’s better to be safe than sorry."