American Children Drowning Essay

From 2000 to 2006, drowning was the second leading cause of unintentional injury death among US children between 1 and 19 years of age.1 In 2006, drowning claimed the lives of approximately 1100 US children. Fortunately, childhood unintentional drowning fatality rates have decreased steadily from 2.68 per 100 000 in 1985 to 1.32 per 100 000 in 2006. Rates of drowning death vary with age, gender, and race. Age groups at greatest risk are toddlers and male adolescents. After 1 year of age, male children are at greater risk than are female children. Black and American Indian/Alaska Native children have higher drowning fatality rates than do white and Asian American children. From 2000 to 2006, the highest death rates were seen in white boys 0 to 4 years of age (3.53 per 100 000) and black male adolescents 15 to 19 years of age (4.46 per 100 000).1 In 2008, approximately 3800 children younger than 20 years visited a hospital emergency …show more content…
Classification of Drowning
The World Congress on Drowning and the World Health Organization have revised the definition of drowning to be “the process of experiencing respiratory impairment from submersion/immersion in liquid.” Drowning outcomes are now to be classified as “death,” “no morbidity,” or “morbidity” (further categorized as “moderately disabled,” “severely disabled,” “vegetative state/coma,” and “brain death”). The new definition and classification are more consistent with other medical conditions and injuries and should help in drowning surveillance and collection of more reliable and comprehensive epidemiologic information.5
Drain Entrapment and Hair