Dry drowning is a medical emergency where fluid accumulates in the lungs, causing oxygen deprivation and potentially leading to cardiac arrest. It can be caused by various factors, including trauma to the chest or diaphragm, inhalation of gases, and laryngospasm. Symptoms include wheezing, difficulty breathing, and dizziness. It is not always possible to save the victim. Secondary drowning, where someone inhales water that damages the lungs, is often confused with dry drowning.
Dry drowning is a medical emergency in which a patient is unable to extract oxygen from the air due to fluid in the lungs. The patient will die if not treated due to oxygen deprivation and medical intervention is needed quickly for people in this situation. It is important to be aware that water is not necessarily involved in dry drowning cases. Fluids accumulate in the lungs due to physiological processes and the patient drowns in his own fluids, not in water from an external source.
Some causes of dry drowning include trauma to the chest or diaphragm that makes it impossible for the lungs to inflate for oxygen, chest paralysis, inhalation of gases that displace oxygen, and laryngospasm, in which the larynx closes and does not reopen. Approximately 15% of drowning deaths are attributed to dry drowning.
In all of these cases, the patient is not getting oxygen, but the blood continues to circulate and some changes occur in the vascular system around the lungs as the body tries to compensate for the limited gas exchange. Fluids begin to leak from the blood vessels and into the lungs, causing pulmonary edema. The lungs fill with fluid, making gas exchange impossible even if oxygen reaches the lungs and the patient dies of cardiac arrest.
Patients who are experiencing dry drowning may have varying symptoms, depending on the cause. Common signs are wheezing, feeling like you can’t breathe, and developing dizziness. Treatment requires determining what is interfering with gas exchange in the lungs and addressing it. This is not always possible in time to save the victim.
This term is also used to describe some documented cases where people dive into extremely cold water and suffer cardiac arrest. When they are autopsied, there is no water in their lungs and the cause of the drowning is not actually the interference with the ability to absorb oxygen, but the shock to the heart which causes it to stop. People can reduce the risks of such accidents by acclimatizing to cold water slowly and avoiding very cold water if they have a history of heart problems.
There is some confusion between dry drowning and a different type of medical crisis known as secondary drowning. In secondary drowning, someone swims out, suffers trauma to their lungs, and becomes ill and dies several hours later. The patient drowns on dry land, leading some people to call it “dry drowning,” but the drowning is the result of inhaling water that damages the lungs.
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