Dry drowning is a medical emergency where a patient is unable to pull oxygen out of the air as a result of fluid on the lungs. The patient will die if not treated as a result of the oxygen deprivation and medical intervention is required quickly for people in this situation. It is important to be aware that water is not necessarily involved in cases of dry drowning. Fluids build up in the lungs due to physiological processes and the patient drowns in his or her own fluids, not 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 to get oxygen, paralysis in the chest, inhalation of gases that displace oxygen, and laryngospasm, where the larynx snaps shut and will not reopen. Around 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 take place in the vasculature around the lungs as the body tries to compensate for the limited gas exchange. Fluids start to leak out of the blood vessels and into the lungs, leading to pulmonary edema. The lungs fill with fluid, making it impossible for gas exchange to take place even if oxygen does reach the lungs, and the patient dies of cardiac arrest.
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
Dolphin dies in arms of distraught fisherman on banks of Lee
By Eoin English
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
A DISTRAUGHT fisherman has spoken of how one of the dolphins that have drawn huge crowds to the banks of the River Lee in Cork city died in his arms yesterday after it got caught in his net.
Anthony Quilligan said he and his father, Simon, fought desperately to save the young male dolphin but were too late.
It is believed the dead mammal was one of three that swam into the heart of the city on Monday.
"It's a terrible thing to happen. It's the saddest day's fishing I've ever had," Anthony said.
He and his father were using draft nets under licence to fish for salmon near the Ferry Boat Inn on the Lower Glanmire Road when the incident occurred at about 11.30am.
"We were hauling the nets when I saw the dolphin jump out of the water about seven feet behind the net," Anthony said.
"He went back under the water and we started to haul the nets faster to get them out of the way, but I saw the net's floats go under and I knew he was caught."
They waded out and had the distressed dolphin ashore within 20 seconds and began cutting the nets.
"He was alive when we got him ashore. We were just getting the last bit of net off his tail, and I was holding his head up out of the water. We wanted to save the creature, but he died in my arms," Anthony said.
"We've been fishing there all our lives and this never happened. We're just shocked. It will take a while to get over it."
Marine experts from University College Cork recovered the remains.
A postmortem is due to take place tomorrow to establish the exact cause of death.
Dr Emer Rogan, a lecturer at UCC's School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences, said it was a male sub-adult common dolphin.
She said it most likely "dry-drowned" after going into a state of shock. "But we can't rule out whether it was sick beforehand."
Yesterday, just two dolphins were spotted in the river between Lapps Quay and upriver, where they were joined by a seal.
This appeared in the printed version of the Irish Examiner Wednesday, July 13, 2011
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