ABSTRACT
Drowning can be defined as death caused by submersion in a liquid. It can occur in an ocean or, in the case of alcoholic stupor, epileptics, or infants, in water as shallow as 6 in. The mechanism of death in acute drowning is irreversible cerebral anoxia. The original concept of drowning deaths was that they were asphyxial in nature, with water occluding the airways. Experiments in the late 1940s and early 1950s suggested that death was caused by electrolyte disturbances or cardiac arrhythmias produced by large volumes of water entering the circulation through the lungs.
