Click this link to a VERY interesting video.

A Minneapolis-St. Paul television station, FOX 9 News partnered with Foss Swim Schools to do a test to see if parents near a pool would notice a child drowning.

We have the wrong impression of what drowning is like. There is no loud splashing or calls for help – as drowning is often portrayed in mainstream media. But it only takes a couple of minutes for a child to loose buoyancy, slip under the water and drown or suffer oxygen depravation.

Those are a couple of silent minutes and take place more often than anyone would think. In fact in the twin cities area where this test was performed, 4 children drowned in 4 months – in plain sight.

As you watch this video, note that – even though they feel they are close enough to act in time – most parents at poolside aren’t even watching the water. These parents are incorrectly assuming that they will hear something that will signal danger. The video notes that the best lifeguard would probably be one that is deaf since this person would not depend on sound as an emergency alert.

You’ll probably watch this video more than once because there is lots of information packed into it – from the importance of our nose in keeping the buoyancy needed not to drown to examples of how quickly a drowning event can take place and how long even children in the pool close by take to notice something is wrong.

This video is sobering. A young man that had a near drowning experience and his father share how importance of gaining a better understanding of what drowning really is. Real footage of a child losing his struggle to stay above the water is shared.

Swim Schools are a perfect conduit for this information, for sharing this video, for posting the REAL warning signs of drowning and maybe even for performing this test for yourselves and your school’s parents.