Shallow Water Blackout Prevention

Dartmouth Swim Team Member Drowns During Endurance Training

Children and adolescents enjoy playing games and challenging one another when swimming. Who can go the fastest, who can go the farthest, and who can hold their breath the longest. Can you swim the length of the pool and back without coming  up?

Late Secondary Drowing Can Occur in Children

Most people think that these are relatively harmless,however breath holding can be very dangerous,and rarely fatal.  Michael Phelps (the Olympic Gold Medallist discusses this in the video, as well as CNN's Sanjay Gupta.

The article was written by a physician whose son perished from a shallow water blackout. Some previously mysterious drownings may have occured while lone swimmers were in a pool.  ALWAYS HAVE A BUDDY SWIMMER !

Brochure, Shallow Water Blackout (download)

THE FACTS ABOUT SHALLOW
WATER BLACKOUT (SWB)

• Underwater breath-holding and underwater
swimming have been proudly practiced for
decades. 
• Coaches and military trainers teach hypoxic
training and breath-holding, which can be deadly.
• Lifeguards and parents routinely accept and
admire breath-holding drills conducted in
swimming pools.
• Freedivers and spearfishermen, not safetytrained,
practice hyperventilation routinely.
• Internet sites promote and encourage breathholding
contests, games, and records.
• Because of their false sense of safety,pbut SWB alsooccurs in any body of water.
• Hypoxic training, breath-holding, and underwaterswimming lead to drowning and sudden deaths
 that are disregarded and often misdiagnosed as traditional accidental drowning.
• SWB is not well known because when Coroners rule “drowning” it masks the real problem:
 hyperventilation combined with competitive, repetitive breath-holding.
• Cause of death may be ruled drowning with water in the lungs, but the lungs may also be dry from
  laryngospasm and asphyxiation.
• Intentional hyperventilation does not have to occur for SWB to happen. 
• SWB often precipitates other unknown and
  underlying medical causes like Long Q-T, RyR2,seizures, etc.
• The best of swimmers CAN succumb to SWB.
• The ARC, YMCA and USA Swimming now ban hypoxic training and prolonged underwater
 swimming although far too many still practice it.

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Shallow Water Blackout Prevention