Living in the Sunshine State, water safety has always been important to our family. I remember learning how to rescue someone, and how to swim safely out of an ocean rip, as a young child. I grew up in a farming community, and my brothers and I always knew if we went near the dam we would be in for it.\u00a0I have also seen how resuscitation after drowning may not always the best option.<\/p>\n
Given it is school holidays, and given how popular our state is at this time of year, unfortunately we have seen some near misses – thank goodness they reached these struggling swimmers <\/a>in time. The difference between drowning and surviving can be just seconds.<\/p>\n Children are particularly vulnerable – during the last couple of weeks, a 15-month old drowned in the family pool; a\u00a0four-year old boy drowned in the neighbour’s pool;\u00a0<\/a>a two-year-old boy drowned in the family dam<\/a>.\u00a0…. figures showed five drownings in pools, seven in dams and two in waterways among children under eight since July 2014.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n As an injury prevention researcher I firmly believe in preventing drownings and near-miss drownings is the best course of action we can take, and any research findings which help us take a holistic approach to preventing drownings spark my interest. In November 2014, the World Health Organization released its first Global report on drowning: preventing a leading killer<\/em><\/a>. with the World Conference on Drowning Prevention<\/a> to be held in Malaysia in November. The April edition of Injury Prevention features a paper by Karimi, Beiki, and Mohammadi,<\/a> highlighting the increased drowning risk for boys with a foreign background; an article by Tian, Shaw, Zack, Kobau, Dyckstra, and Covington<\/a> in the the March edition of Epilepsy & Behavior highlighting the increased risk of death due to drowning for children and young adults with epilepsy; and the February edition of PLoS One featuring an article by Wallis, Watt, Franklin, Nixon, and Kimble <\/a>highlighting the considerable burden of drowning and near-drowning among children aged 0-19 years in Queensland.<\/p>\n Clearly we have much progress to make, and publishing research findings such as these are vital to prevent water-related deaths in persons of all ages.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Living in the Sunshine State, water safety has always been important to our family. I remember learning how to rescue someone, and how to swim safely out of an ocean rip, as a young child. I grew up in a farming community, and my brothers and I always knew if we went near the dam […]<\/p>\n