Thanks for trying. I’m on a phone and that page blurs halfway down 🤷‍♂️

I watched a kid nearly drown in waist deep water. To this day I have no idea what happened, but it looked like he was floating, then flopping around playfully, then going back to floating. I was standing on the shore just getting my feet wet (this was a "beach" outside Toronto) and I was just kind of watching him because his behavior seemed off somehow. After one of his "flops" he started a face down float, which he's done a few times, but this time it kept going.

I had been counting in my head without even realizing it and we were up to about 60s when I started looking around. Had anyone else noticed? His mom came over and started calling to him. Ok, she's in control. Another 30s pass and his mother is getting panicked. Fuck, I'm fully clothed, an hour from home, should I dive in? Something is definitely wrong. Someone do something... I turn around and start yelling as well.

Finally someone drags him, limp, from barely 3 feet of water. WTF. People are giving him CPR and I check his pulse between breaths... Fuck. I can't find a pulse. Then he rockets a half gallon of water from his lungs and sits up. Finally some lifeguards show up.

I'd completely froze in the moment. I sensed something was off and didn't do anything. Thank God the kid survived, but I think about it way too much...

of the approximately 750 children who will drown next year, about 375 of them will do so within 25 yards of a parent or other adult

These kinds of statistic are harrowing, if you think about them a bit longer. Hundreds of children will fight for their lives only meters away from their parents trying to get their attention, and die.

Going to repeat Glemek because you've received a shocking number of upvotes.

The point is that people who haven't seen someone drown, may not know what drowning looks like, with the exception of media depictions.

The title and headline communicate the point effectively which draws out the semantics sadists such as yourself.

Also, use a stick or a rope to get them out of the water. They might drown you if you jump in. If you tie a rope into a loop so they can grab on, make sure it's a static knot or you're throwing them a noose. If you have to jump in, once you grab them, you have to swim side ways with your feet deep in the water and them on your side facing out of the water. This is more for lakes/ pools. Learned most of that in the Boyscouts back in the day.

A crisis is, by definition, abnormal. Please don't kick yourself for not acting as quickly or as perfectly as you want to in hindsight. I've been there before too, and the threshold for "this really is happening, I have to act" isn't always clear...

Extremely important, thanks.

What about the recommendation that, if one does approach them directly, one should do so with a leg rather than an arm?

It seems that many browsers detect that the site does serve an HTTPS version and upgrades the connection, though the certificate is invalid.

Unless the website is supposed to do something more that I’m simply not seeing myself, it appears to simply embed this one YouTube video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9npOp9WhWM

The point is that people who haven’t seen someone drown, may not know what drowning looks like, with the exception of media depictions.

There, fixed that for you.

Drowning does not look like the splashing depictions in media. So that's not an exception. Because that's not what drowning looks like.

Way to prove the headline communicates it effectively when you just made that exact mistake.

You can click on the YouTube video to pick where you think a drowning child is, and it'll give you a score based on how quickly you noticed the kid compared to the life guard.

I've only ever seen this one:

I didn't make a mistake. I understood the intent. You decided it was a mistake because you like playing with semantics. You're a semantichist (hah! See what I did there?)

They chose a headline that catches attention, and it bothered you enough to warrant your attention too. Effective. Communication. The words that were chosen had the intended effect.

the first time i was VERY young to be fair, only one was relatively recent

i know it makes me sound stupid but i was just very young the first time lol, barely remember it

i know right 😭
definitely an otter in spirit, rather than in practice

I don't know if it's still valid but when I did bronze med yes, there was an approach position with one raised leg to kick or splash if needed that was taught.

Drowning people will often try to climb on you and shove you under to breath. If splashing and keeping distance with a foot fails you hold your breath and dive. They will let go and try to get back to air.

The general chain of preferences was: reach>throw>wade>row>swim>tow

Reach with a stick or something if you can avoid getting in.

Throw a flotation aid or rope

Wade out and throw a flotation aid or rope

Use a boat or board etc if available

Swim out with a flotation aid

Swim out and tow them in while swimming.

Thank you, I learned something new

Arent there some humans who , scientifically speaking, just do not float? So shouldnt these human beings avoid water like its the plague?

They dont float and when they do begin drowning you wont even hear of notice them so....why should they evem put themselves at risk by entering ANY body of water?

Frank Pia observed people drowning and noted the actual signs of it.

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7559254/

The description is based on the observations by one lifeguard, Frank Pia, of 13 persons who drowned at Orchard Beach (New York) during recreational activities. The persons entered the ocean in front of the lifeguard in water that was beyond their depth. The response includes a group of negative characteristics: the person is unable to call out for help, cannot wave for help, cannot voluntarily control their arm movements, and is unable to move in a horizontal or diagonal direction. The struggle at the surface of the water lasts between 20 and 60 s. A positive characteristic is non-voluntary controlled movements that consist of extending the arms laterally and of pressing down on the surface of the water to try to breathe. Sometimes “climbing ladder motion” is added to this, although no evidence for this could be found. Pia also mentions the behavior of people in distress: voluntary control of movements that consist of moving the arms and legs to keep the mouth above the surface of the water.

For those curious, 25 yards is about 23 metres.