DaaBoss
Registered
I found the following thread from over a decade ago: https://www.scubaboard.com/community/threads/persistent-laryngospasm.281405/
Before I found this thread on SB however, I read the most comprehensive article on the overall detailed subject of drowning, which includes the role of laryngospasm in drowning. I certainly learned a lot and I suspect that many MDs and divers alike would do well to read this whole article.
I didn't see any reference to one specific cause of drowning however: Hyperventilating before freediving: How and why this causes drowning. I suspect this is highly unreported, since it isn't obvious that is what occurred. Ask most anyone that isn't a diver, what they should do if they are trying to stay underwater longer what they should do?? Most would answer with the deadly and useless:, "Why, of course I'd first hyperventilate so I can stay down longer. It works every time!". Unfortunately, it can also work so well that you can drown. TEACH other non-divers about this danger.
Note that you might need to have, or get a password before you can read it: Drowning (on MedScape.com): Drowning: Background, Etiology, Epidemiology
Here are a few excepts, and the most troubling perhaps, is that 1/3 of the survivors suffer brain damage, and 10% of one study of >5 year olds came close to drowning. (And so, perhaps 3% of that whole population survey experienced brain damage, from "almost drowning"??)
Before I found this thread on SB however, I read the most comprehensive article on the overall detailed subject of drowning, which includes the role of laryngospasm in drowning. I certainly learned a lot and I suspect that many MDs and divers alike would do well to read this whole article.
I didn't see any reference to one specific cause of drowning however: Hyperventilating before freediving: How and why this causes drowning. I suspect this is highly unreported, since it isn't obvious that is what occurred. Ask most anyone that isn't a diver, what they should do if they are trying to stay underwater longer what they should do?? Most would answer with the deadly and useless:, "Why, of course I'd first hyperventilate so I can stay down longer. It works every time!". Unfortunately, it can also work so well that you can drown. TEACH other non-divers about this danger.
Note that you might need to have, or get a password before you can read it: Drowning (on MedScape.com): Drowning: Background, Etiology, Epidemiology
Here are a few excepts, and the most troubling perhaps, is that 1/3 of the survivors suffer brain damage, and 10% of one study of >5 year olds came close to drowning. (And so, perhaps 3% of that whole population survey experienced brain damage, from "almost drowning"??)
Drowning remains a significant worldwide public health concern, ranking as the third leading cause of unintentional injury death and accounting for 7% of all injury-related deaths. It is a major cause of disability and death, particularly in children. At least one third of survivors sustain moderate-to-severe neurologic sequelae.
A survey of 9,420 primary school children in South Carolina estimated that approximately 10% of children younger than 5 years had an experience judged a "serious threat" of drowning.
Annually, an estimated 372,000 people die from drowning [internationally], which accounts for drowning to be a major public health problem worldwide. Global estimates of drowning are likely a significant underestimation of the actual public health impact, [since] no annual international incidence of associated neurological injury has been reported. The overall incidence of drowning has an estimated range of 20-500 times the rate of fatal drowning.
