secondary drowing

[coffeeman]

How is someone treated in hospital if suffering from secondary drowning....?

[kazza12345]

surely if you have drowned or suffer from drowning you are dead? like being electroculted - you can't be "a little bit electrocuted", i dont think you can be a little bit drowned

[dot.hawkes]

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi? cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=7427600&dopt= Abstract

[heathfield]

If water or a chemical are inhaled, this can act as an irritant to the lungs and set up a reaction whereby they produce further liquid. You may not drown through inhaling a small quantity of water, but you could drown because of the liquid the lungs produce. That's why it's called 'secondary drowning'. The amount of oxygen the lungs can absorb is reduced - hence the term 'deficient gas exchange' in Dot's link. Pneumonia does the same, and treatment would be similar. Complications arise when bacteria are present in the inhaled liquid, as with, e.g., seawater. A mere teaspoonful of inhaled liquid can start up this secondary drowning reaction.

[JudgeJ]

Nonetheless, being the pedant that I am I have to say I agree with kazza12345. You may need treatment if you have suffered near-drowning, but if drowned, you are dead.

Definitions: drown � to suffocate in liquid. Suffocate � to KILL by preventing respiration.

[shammydodger]

Yes, JudgeJ, but if the medics have a term "secondary drowning" for a condition, don't you think it would be wise to defer to them, rather than attempt to plead pedantry in intensive care? Just a thought!

[JudgeJ]

Fair enough!

(Cough, choke, splutter)