We are glad to hear your baby has had such a successful outcome.

The whole purpose of writing this piece was because of the variety of language. Technically your son has had a “drowning without morbidity”, but no matter which way you describe it your baby is one of the lucky ones, and we are happy for you.

There will be some follow up information on here in the near future about the impacts of cold water vs warm water in drownings.

We are living in South Africa and had a Near drown about a year and a half ago. We have, how ever, had a totally recoverd baby at the end. The drowning Specialist at the hospital we were flown to called ours a SUCCESSFULL Near-drowning….not that this term is generally used, but it was EXACTLY describing what happen!

My son was submersed for maybe 3-5 min in cold (9′C) swimming pool water. No reaction and no pulse when taken out. layman’s CPR was done immediatly. Total time before fully resused was about an hour and a half. He was kept in a medically induced coma for 9 days, and treated with the hypothermal (cold) bubble wrap suit –

We had him tested a year after the accident and the findings confirmed what we expected: 100% NO fall out after the ordeal! (Praise God!)

Is this an unusual term to you too?

The Samuel Morris Foundation regularly promotes the fact that effective supervision is the number one preventative tool in toddler drowning prevention. Supervision is a very important component in a suite of preventative tools but it must be backed up by other tools such as pool fencing, children having access to learning water safety skills and drills and parents/care givers having first aid and CPR skills.

Unfenced pools represent significant hazards to toddlers. The evidence clearly shows that four sided isolation pool fencing significantly contributes to a reduction in toddler drowning numbers. See this Cochrane Review

Pool fencing can only be an effective contributing factor where it is correctly installed and maintained. Two features which were absent in this case.

The experience in Western Australia has shown that an ongoing pool safety inspection process results in a DOUBLING of pool fencing compliance, and over the past decade a HALVING OF THE TODDLER DROWNING RATE in backyard pools. Sadly in most of the rest of Australia pool fencing compliance is at BEST 50% and it has been shown in several other surveys that NON COMPLIANCE rates are as high as 85%.

So while we appreciate that you are passionate about parents supervising their children, the reality is that NO parent is capable of having their eyes on their child 24hrs a day, and additional safety measure are a MUST.

Fences give parents a false sense of security. If the pool had not been fenced then the chances are the parents would not have allowed the child to be outside unsupervised … and this tragedy would not have occurred. Do not rely on any fence to protect your child … supervise your children like the pool is unfenced.

Sadly governments have not responded to the recommendations and Australia is left with a different set of pool fencing laws in every state. What we need is a nationally consistent set of of pool fencing laws that include ongoing periodic mandatory inspections.

Western Australia has shown that an inspection program doubles compliance with pool fencing laws and halves the toddler drowning rate.

All of this needs to be combined with ongoing public education to promote water safety awareness.

If you are disgusted by the deaths and disabilities from drownings then PLEASE write to your local member of parliament and your premier and ask them why they have not acted and urge them to do so!

Nik