ABSTRACT
Deaths due to drowning and other water-related deaths remain both a local and worldwide problem with far-reaching human and economic consequences, prompting ongoing data collection, analysis, and research. A number of task forces made up of experts involved in water safety from around the world were established in 1997 in order to dežne recommendations and reduce the number of drowning victims and improve the outcome of casualties. ese recommendations were discussed during a number of meetings held at the World Congress on Drowning in Amsterdam in 2002. A dežnition of drowning has been adopted and recommended for widespread use by the World Congress on Drowning, which dežnes drowning as “the process of experiencing respiratory impairment from submersion/immersion in liquid.”1 Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary describes “to drown” in part as “to suocate by submersion, esp. in water.”2 Dorland’s Illustrated Medical Dictionary dežnes drowning as “suocation and death resulting from žlling of the lungs with water or other substance or ©uid, so that gas exchange becomes impossible,” and secondary drowning as “delayed death from drowning due to such complications as pulmonary alveolar in©ammation.”3 Forensic pathologists, who are involved in the determination of cause and manner of death, generally dežne drowning as an asphyxial death in which the body is deprived of oxygen as a result of impairment of oxygen exchange ultimately within the lungs a‹er partial or complete submersion in a liquid, usually water, with subsequent inhalation of some quantity of the liquid deep into the airways of the lungs. Partial or complete submersion specižcally involves partial or complete coverage of the external airways (nose and mouth). All of the above dežnitions have in common that drowning involves a compromise of respiratory function that, if prolonged, can result in irreversible organ injury or death. Death may occur acutely within several minutes and up to twenty-four hours a‹er submersion, or may be delayed beyond twenty-four hours, in which the victim can develop a number of medical complications arising from direct lung injury by inhaled ©uid or water. is delayed death is also known as near drowning. Moreover, the forensic pathologist considers the determination of death due to drowning as a diagnosis made by exclusion of other potential causes of death by the performance of a complete autopsy with review of medical records, test results, and all investigative and scene information. While there are a number of autopsy žndings supportive of drowning, there is no one dežnitive test or autopsy žnding that can absolutely unequivocally dežne drowning, and not all individuals recovered from a body of water can be presumed to have drowned.
