Topic - Secondary Drowning
Secondary drowning, also known as “delayed drowning”, can cause serious health problems despite the innocent-looking initial symptoms.
Secondary drowning is a form of “wet drowning” because a small amount of water gets into the lungs, but not enough to cripple breathing right away.
A child may just choke and gasp and recover quickly and parents are only temporarily alarmed.
That water that gets into their lungs? It just sits there and quietly prevents the lungs from oxygenating blood the way they’re supposed to.
Over the course of the next several hours, kids have increasing difficulty breathing.
If they have rapid shallow breaths with flared nostrils, chest pain, vomiting, extreme fatigue, blue lips, pale skin or changes in behavior including being combative, argumentative or cranky, get to an emergency room immediately.
