Drowning Doesn't Look Like Drowning

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Last edited Fri Jun 20, 2025, 01:59 PM - Edit history (2)

Tiffany C. Li
‪@tiffanycli.bsky.social‬

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Also note that the color of your swimsuit matters for visibility in emergencies

https://www.cnn.com/2024/06/07/health/swimsuit-color-pool-safety-wellness

Swimwear safety chart showing different colors of suits vs visibility in water
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‪Trish Greenhalgh‬
‪@trishgreenhalgh.bsky.social‬
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Thanks for the reminder @janemunday.bsky.social. Every summer, I repost this article DROWNING DOES NOT LOOK LIKE DROWNING. To date, I know of FOUR kids who were saved after someone who'd clicked on the link learnt how to spot actual drowning. Take time to read and pass on.

https://slate.com/technology/2013/06/rescuing-drowning-children-how-to-know-when-someone-is-in-trouble-in-the-water.html

Drowning Doesn’t Look Like Drowning
Drowning is not the violent, splashing call for help that most people expect.
slate.com
June 19, 2025 at 9:57 PM

Also note that the color of your swimsuit matters for visibility in emergencies www.cnn.com/2024/06/07/h...

— Tiffany C. Li (@tiffanycli.bsky.social) 2025-06-20T01:57:39.622Z

FAMILY
Drowning Doesn’t Look Like Drowning

In 10 percent of drownings, adults are nearby but have no idea the victim is dying. Here’s what to look for.

BY MARIO VITTONE
JUNE 04, 20137:14 AM


A lifeguard keeps watch on opening day of the newly renovated McCarren Park Pool on June 28, 2012, in Brooklyn, New York. Mario Tama/Getty Images

Slate’s archives are full of important stories. We’re republishing this article for the start of summer. It was originally published June 4, 2013.

The new captain jumped from the deck, fully dressed, and sprinted through the water. A former lifeguard, he kept his eyes on his victim as he headed straight for the couple swimming between their anchored sportfisher and the beach. “I think he thinks you’re drowning,” the husband said to his wife. They had been splashing each other and she had screamed but now they were just standing, neck-deep on the sand bar. “We’re fine; what is he doing?” she asked, a little annoyed. “We’re fine!” the husband yelled, waving him off, but his captain kept swimming hard. ”Move!” he barked as he sprinted between the stunned owners. Directly behind them, not 10 feet away, their 9-year-old daughter was drowning. Safely above the surface in the arms of the captain, she burst into tears, “Daddy!”

How did this captain know—from 50 feet away—what the father couldn’t recognize from just 10? Drowning is not the violent, splashing call for help that most people expect. The captain was trained to recognize drowning by experts and years of experience. The father, on the other hand, had learned what drowning looks like by watching television. If you spend time on or near the water (hint: that’s all of us) then you should make sure that you and your crew know what to look for whenever people enter the water. Until she cried a tearful, “Daddy,” she hadn’t made a sound. As a former Coast Guard rescue swimmer, I wasn’t surprised at all by this story. Drowning is almost always a deceptively quiet event. The waving, splashing, and yelling that dramatic conditioning (television) prepares us to look for is rarely seen in real life.

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