My first near-drowning
One would not think of a near-drowning as a major issue in
life or even becoming a serious health problem as the fact remains you are
alive, you survived and you didn’t drown. Likely, some near drownings in the older
days never saw an emergency room as the problem was solved once you were seeing
breathing on your own or no longer in distress. Realistically, drowning is the
third most common death in the USA but not much is said about near-drownings.
Worldwide about 150,000 people drown annually. Statistical reporting
on near-drowning is unreliable, but experts have estimated that there may be
600 near-drowning incidents for every reported drowning death. Supposedly there are two times in your life
when you are at great risk of drowning. The
first is when you are 5 years old or younger and the other is between 15 and 25
years old even when you are left unattended or unsupervised.
I was nearly 14 when I experienced my near-drowning. I was
with a group of church going youth called the Youth Fellowship and invited to a
birthday party in Ohio for a kid who had a big house and a big back yard with a
pool. There must have been at least twenty or more kids there and
the party was rambunctious as can be. Curiously, I saw very few adults but that
didn’t matter to me as it was a great time to have fun and fun it was.
Summertime, hot and humid and right after all the presents were opened we went
swimming.
Not bragging about being a good swimmer I blended in with
the group and tossed a beach ball round as well as other water games designed to
get you wet. I had learned to swim young when I lived on the islands surrounded
by the Pacific Ocean and never feared water. I would jump off the high dive,
jump into the deep section and float or drift until I was exhausted.
There were no drugs there. No alcohol and nothing I could
think of that made the party a dangerous place to be but when I realized a
certain group of boys a few years older than me were pushing and grabbing
others younger especially the girls, things started to get out of hand. I could
tell something bad was going to happen. It was only a matter of time.
Risk taking behavior was my middle name. I could and would
take a dare as easy as I would make one. Without grownups around, the place
became rowdy and I could sense this would lead to something bad but I kept
playing and diving off the springboard to show off to the girls my diving
skills.
Without warning almost immediately after I dove into the
water I could feel myself struggling to go back to the top and take a breath of
air. I struggled and before I realized what was happening, I had been grappling
with three older boys who were trying to hold me down under the water and
making me swallow pool water as I had opened my mouth trying to breathe as I was
close to reaching the top before they pulled me down again and held me down against
the bottom of the pool until I stopped resisting.
It was likely I passed out or became unconscious as the last
thing I remember was seeing a bright light likened to the sun and a voice
whispering in my ear to relax and stop fighting them. It could have been from sheer
exhaustion I stopped struggling or I was too weak to fight anymore. Mind you,
this is all speculation as I really don’t know what happened when I was
unconscious.
Without my knowledge or awareness somebody saw me down at
the bottom of the pool and with the help of another person they got me out of
the pool and dragged me to the edge laying me down on my back and then my side.
I was not breathing but like I said before, I didn’t know that at the time. The
theory is that I survived because I hadn’t ingested enough water to make the
difference between life and death.
I have been told later on that the effects of near-drownings
on the body impacts the mind as well. The first concern was any damage done
when the body was denied oxygen and air was not getting to my brain, my lungs
and my heart. The second damage of this event was purely psychological as I feared
deep water and mistrusted anyone near me when around the water. This fear or paranoia
would last a lifetime.
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