Re: [Paddlewise] Cold Water Gasp

Chuck Sutherland writes in part:

> The point of the film clip is to demonstrate the gasping, which 
> continues uncontrolled for a time while the diver is swimming, but 
> also to show that as he swims he looses control of the movements of 
> his arms and legs. Thus, over some minutes in the 50 degree F water, 
> the diver looses the ability to swim. In your average boating 
> accident, with the victim in street clothes, gasping for air and soon 
> unable to swim, drowning occurs long before death due to hypothermia 
> occurs. 
> 
> That is my message, and it is not avoided by a prepared mind. A few 
> people survive better or longer, but it is not right to lead the 
> public to believe that if they just have their heads right they will 
> survive. 
> 
> The man in the photo exhibiting the gasp response is standing on the 
> bottom and can stand up after dunking. It is not by accident that his 
> demonstration is carried out where he can get his head back above the 
> surface. 
> 
> Thanks,
> Chuck Sutherland 
> 

I wonder if we aren't talking about different, though similar, reactions. 
One, which I can say from my personal experience is not universal, is an 
*immediate,* uncontrollable gasp that happens when a person submerges in 
cold water. Such a gasp could very easily cause water to enter the lungs and 
lead to drowning. I have read variously that this gasp happens when the 
person's head, chest, or back of the throat is exposed to cold water. I do 
not deny that this may have happened to some individuals, though in the 
cases I have read about I believe this gasp was inferred rather than 
observed. 

Another is an immediate gasp that happens when all but a person's head is 
immersed. This is a "safe" gasp, if the immersion is not prolonged, because 
the person's head is in air, and, since there is little danger of immediate 
drowning, there is little reason to control it. 

The second may grade into the third type of reaction: a *delayed,* 
prolonged, uncontrollable gasping or hyperventilating in air during or after 
exposure. I have experienced this reaction twice -- once after failing in 
several attempts to roll and then wet-exiting, and once after serving as the 
"victim" in an Eskimo rescue when the rescuer took too long to get to me. 
Both times were in Lake Superior in July. Both times I was submerged longer 
than normal in cold water, though it was not the coldest water I have been 
in -- but both times I also ran out of air. 

The only assertion I really disagree with is that an immediate, 
*uncontrollable,* underwater gasp is *universal and inevitable.* It might be 
uncontrollable for some people, but it seems to me that the evidence is 
clear that many, if not most, people can control it least long enough to get 
their heads above water -- as when rolling or with a quick wet exit. It 
seems to me that in most cases the greatest danger is not in the initial 
exposure, except to the degree it might surprise, confuse, or disorient the 
victim, but in prolonged exposure -- which might indeed be only a matter of 
minutes. It is disorientation that habituation might prevent, not the 
weakening of muscles, though in fact the human body can acclimate to cold to 
a certain extent -- witness a 30-degree day in March in Minnesota, when 
people start going about with their jackets unzipped. :-) 

The other dangers of cold water immersion I concur with. 

Chuck Holst 
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