Factors affecting the probability of long-term recovery with mild deficits or full function in young children include the duration of submersion, whether advanced life support was needed at the accident site, the duration of cardiopulmonary resuscitation, and whether spontaneous breathing and circulation are present on arrival at the emergency room. Prolonged submersion in water for more than 5–10 minutes usually leads to poorer prognosis.Data on the long-term outcome are scarce and unreliable. Neurological examination at the time of discharge from the hospital does not accurately predict long-term outcomes. Some people with severe brain injury who were transferred to other institutions died months or years after the drowning and are recorded as survivors. Nonfatal drownings have been estimated as two to four times more frequent than fatal drownings. Long-Term Effects of Drowning in Children
Long-term effects of nonfatal drowning mainly include damage to major organs such as the brain, lungs, and kidneys. Prolonged submersion time is highly attributed to hypoxic ischemic brain injury in susceptible areas of the brain such as the hippocampus, insular cortex, and/or basal ganglia. Severity in hypoxic ischemic damage of these brain structures corresponds to the severity in global damage to areas of the cerebral cortex. The cerebral cortex is a brain structure that is responsible for language, memory, learning, emotion, intelligence, and personality. Global damage to the cerebral cortex can affect one or more of its primary function, Treatment of pulmonary complication from drowning is highly dependent on the amount of lung injury that occurred during the incident.
That includes mariners [and] even many (most) rescue professionals: It is impossible to die from hypothermia in cold water unless you are wearing flotation, because without flotation – you won’t live long enough to become hypothermic. Submersion into cold water can induce cardiac arrhythmias (abnormal heart rates) in healthy people, sometimes causing strong swimmers to drown. The physiological effects caused by the diving reflex conflict with the bodys cold shock response, which includes a gasp and uncontrollable hyperventilation leading to aspiration of water. While breath-holding triggers a slower heart rate, cold shock activates tachycardia, an increase in heart rate. It is thought that this conflict of these nervous system responses may account for the arrhythmias of cold water submersion.Heat transfers very well into water, and body heat is therefore lost extremely quickly in water compared to air, even in merely cool swimming waters around 70 °F (~20 °C). A water temperature of 10 °C (50 °F) can lead to death in as little as one hour, and water temperatures hovering at freezing can lead to death in as little as 15 minutes. This is because cold water can have other lethal effects on the body. Hence, hypothermia is not usually a reason for drowning or the clinical cause of death for those who drown in cold water. Upon submersion into cold water, remaining calm and preventing loss of body heat is paramount.