Thread: Boy dies of Dry Drowning

A 10-year-old boy from South Carolina died of dry drowning more than an hour after swimming and walking home with his mother, reported Medical News. Water may have entered his lungs during an accident in the pool in which he “soiled himself.”

The boy didn’t show any signs of respiratory problems and was put to bed by his mother. Later, she found his face covered in “spongy white material” and didn’t make it to the hospital on time.

About 3,600 Americans died from drowning in 2005, according to the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Some, like the boy, die up to 24 hours later because of water entering the respiratory system. Some are children who died after taking a bath.

Some of the symptoms of water in the lungs are difficult breathing, extreme tiredness and changes in behavior, which result from not enough oxygen reaching the brain.

Source: Boy Dies of Dry Drowning - ToTheCenter

Holy shit. How the hell could the kid be walking around and then that happen.

WTF?!?! shouldn´t we even take a bath anymore cuz we´ll possibly die of dry drowning?
and yeah,think of his mother too - she puts him in bed and later she finds him nearly dead....

Wow, that's scary. How come the body or immune system wasn't being more responsive? Like pain or choking.

^Choking/suffocating is actually in indirect mechanism in that it occurs when there is an excess of of carbon or carbon dioxide in the blood stream rather than the deficiency of oxygen. There have been cases of people choking in air or breathing from oxygen tanks when the oxygen got low.

This case is pretty weird though. I don't understand how this could happen, and it wasn't explained either. I also wonder if you could develop immunities to fluid entering lungs, because significant amounts of fluid has entered my lungs many times (I'm a swimmer) but I usually just cough it out after a while.

The only thing I can think of is if the fluid nearly saturated his lungs, but that should result in immediate respiratory problems, which he showed no signs of.

First time I ever heard of something like this happening O_o

Some are children who died after taking a bath.

Thats just scary...I mean, taking a bath and you end up dying hours later from drowning..shit. Offcause, those were children, but still...You would think that you were safe in your own house, taking a bath...

I know that carbon dioxide bonds to your lungs but still, wow.

honestly, i don't know where the media is getting their "dry drowning" from. i've never heard of the term in first aid and a quick search on wiki lead to a page that didn't have any references.

the problem is most likely Pulmonary edema - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (which one of the commenters brought up) or Water intoxication - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (symptoms may show up much later)

Originally Posted by Urameshi-sama

^Choking/suffocating is actually in indirect mechanism in that it occurs when there is an excess of of carbon or carbon dioxide in the blood stream rather than the deficiency of oxygen. There have been cases of people choking in air or breathing from oxygen tanks when the oxygen got low.

you're not making sense. first of all, choking is due to an object blocking the airway and there's nothing "indirect" about that. second of all, excess of carbon? carbon itself has nothing to do with this case; the problem is the inability to get more oxygen because of fluids in the lungs.

i don't remember much about the lungs, but i'm pretty darn sure there's no bonding of carbon dioxide involved. what actually binds carbon dioxide is likely to be a transport compound similar to hemoglobin (which binds and transports oxygen for your body).

I did misuse choking, but I was right about Carbon levels inducing suffocating:

Originally Posted by wiki

Asphyxia is usually characterized by air hunger, but this is not always the case; the urge to breathe is triggered by rising carbon dioxide levels in the blood rather than diminishing oxygen levels. Sometimes there is not enough carbon dioxide to cause air hunger, and victims become hypoxic without knowing it.

And I never mentioned anything about CO2 bonding into the lungs, that's something Henchy mentioned.

there's a big difference between carbon dioxide and carbon. they're structurally and chemically very different. one is a compound that's found in air, and another is an element that forms diamond/graphite. i'm not just nitpicking considering you said "carbon or carbon dioxide", which is clearly wrong.