GOOSE CREEK, S.C.

A 10-year-old South Caroliina boy died last weekend several hours after he swallowed water in a swimming pool.

Goose Creek police say Johnny Jackson swallowed some water while swimming in a pool at his apartment complex around noon Sunday

Police say he complained he was tired and took a nap. When someone checked on him, water was coming out of his nose and he was having trouble breathing.

The boy later died at Trident Hospital.

Berkeley County Coroner Glenn Rhoad told the Charlestown Post and Courier of Charleston, the boy's lungs were filled with water and he died of asphyxiation.

Rhoad said there was nothing suspicious about the death.

The boy, a fourth-grader called "Jon-Jon" by his family, essentially drown, medical experts told the Post and Courier.

Not all drowning deaths happen immediately. Other phenomena, such as secondary drowning, can occur as much as 72 hours later and without any warning signs, the newspaper reported.


FOXNews.com

How sad...I was never aware of this, and will now have extra caution with summer here and the kids swimming..

I would like to know what's the first aid to prevent secondary drowning if some amount of water came into my lung. Is CPR enough?

This is peculiour. I once choke don an apple when I was 3. I was all blue in the face but my dad got it out by holding me upside down and shaking me.(Not the hymlic but it worked)

The doctor said I should not be allowed to sleep for a certain period of time or I would not wake up again.(Eg. 6-8 hours)

Wonder if this has anything to do with the symptoms of secondary drowning?

That is so sad. It is strange.

Secondary drowning has to do with the lung tissues releasing a fluid in response to the initial drowning, I have seen it several times; in the article it says "swallowed" water, that isnt correct. It should say inhaled water. You can swallow water and it wont be a problem, but lung tissue is pretty sensitive stuff. The slighest bit for foregn matter can cause serious long term problems. The fluid that gets released by the lung tissue keeps your lungs from being able to properly do their job and absorb air like they are supposed to; so it is like drowning again.(This can also happen when the lungs get exposed to caustic gases too, like chlorine...)

First off, everyone should know CPR... for drownings, that is the only thing that is going to help the matter; if the person doesnt get life saving cpr in the first few minutes to save their life, all of the medical care in the world is not going to help. People never seem to realize that the most important part of emergency care falls into their hands...They assume that firefighters and EMT's are going to do everything, but that 10 minutes it takes for us to get there is too long for a body to go without air, and if nothing is done in that time it will pretty much seal that persons fate...Good CPR keeps Oxygen flowing to the tissues of the body and keeps them alive until better medical care comes along.

When a person drowns, their lungs never fully fill with water; there is no need for any type of technique to try and get the water out, doing CPR will get air in and circulating...in some cases you may get some water back out when you are doing compressions, but either way you just do good old fashioned CPR...If you havent taken a class lately you can talk to your fire department and see if they are putting on a community class where it is free or just a few dollars for the card...

Secondary drownings can only be resolved by doctors in a clinical setting, and they are difficult in that you cant tell ahead of time who is going to suffer from one in many cases; it can come out of the blue...there are many times where drowning victims will be kept for observation for that very reason...

Thanks for the information Fluffy...We have a crew of little one's in our family and in each household, at least one of us has gone to class for CPR...My grandchildren are always swallowing water when their swimming, and that's what alarmed be about the article....

Wow, thats good to know. Thanks for the info.

Thank you Fluffybunny that info is interesting and useful to many, I've never really thought about something like this ever happening.

Yeah, I'm thankful for that information too. I'll be even more wary of my friends who can't swim when I'm out swimming now. That's horrible.

that is so sad

to heinrich 1858.. your dad did the right thing, albeit a little strange... the heimlich is a very outdated way to 'help; a person choking.. it actually can do a hell of a lot more damage than good.. not only can it dislodge the foreign body further into the lungs... it can break ribs. and having any material in the lungs (other than the lungs and its normal secretions) is pretty bad too.
you only need a teaspoon of fluid in the lungs to drown.. its not a lot, but it certainly does the job, and like fluffybunny says everyone should know cpr. it is one the single most important thing to know, especially if you are a parent.
i want to know why the heck the parents didnt take some action for their child, especially seeing they saw fluid escaping from his nostrils and mouth...? wouldnt you think someone would assume something is amiss here?

Poor kid I've never heard of anything like this.

The cause of death was probably Hydro -narcosis, being drunk on water, if you swallow large amounts of water it ia absorbed by the digestive system and creates an electrolyte imbalance which can be fatal. It use to be taught in advanced lifeguarding classes as something to be aware of especially in cases where some one had a seizure and submerged under water for any period of time. We wre taught to have them immediately transported to the hospital even if they appeared fine after rescuing them.