Brain Damage After a Drowning Accident

UNITED STATES (TXAN 24) — According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, over 4,500 people died from drowning each year from 2020 through 2022.

Children are at highest risk. For children 1 to 4 years of age, drowning is the leading cause of death.

For every fatal drowning of a child, about seven children survive a nonfatal drowning incident and require emergency medical care.

Non-fatal drowning accidents can lead to serious injuries and other negative outcomes. Brain oxygen starvation while someone is underwater is one of these things.

It can have a lasting impact and affect someone's memory, movement, speech, and how they behave. The hardest-hit survivors may never live on their own again.

Understanding what happens to the brain when a person drowns can help families identify what to look for and anticipate the needs of long-term care.

Here is what you need to know if you or someone close to you has suffered brain damage after a drowning.

Why Oxygen Deprivation Causes Lasting Harm

The brain requires a constant flow of oxygen.

When a person is drowning and cannot breathe, brain cells begin to die after about four minutes. Each additional minute of not breathing results in further damage.

A person can seem fine right after being rescued from the water but can rapidly get worse. Water in the lungs can make breathing difficult for the person who was rescued. It is necessary to go to the hospital right away for any drowning incident.

Doctors call it a hypoxic injury when oxygen flow drops and an anoxic injury when it stops completely. Anoxic injuries typically carry a worse outlook.

Brain injuries sustained in near-drowning events occur when there is oxygen loss, not an impact like other types of brain injury. An impact usually damages the area that was struck. Compared to TBIs, oxygen loss tends to affect wide areas of the brain.

What the Long-Term Effects Can Look Like

Brain injury severity is generally determined by how much time the patient was without breathing and how quickly circulation was restored.

Serious near-drowning incidents can leave victims with cognitive problems, like issues with concentration and memory. Problems with motor function, speaking, or, in severe cases, a prolonged disorder of consciousness may also occur.

A Naples traumatic brain injury lawyer helps many families deal with injuries that result from something other than a direct hit to the head.

Because the damage comes from lost oxygen and not a blow to the head, these cases call for different medical evidence and expert testimony.

Families may not know the full extent of the injury right away. Effects in children often show as personality and cognitive issues that only develop with time. Rehabilitation takes a lot of time.

Many patients need months of physical and occupational therapy, and some need speech therapy too. The most severe cases require constant care.

How Legal Responsibility Gets Established

In cases where an individual is brain-damaged after almost drowning, families are usually required to prove that a specific party had a legal obligation of care to their loved one and that this obligation was not honored.

There is also a need to establish that the failure to fulfill this obligation caused the injury.

When pools lack supervision or have weak barriers, faulty alarms, or negligent lifeguards, accidents become far more likely.

There are a variety of people or groups that could be liable, including owners of pools, HOAs, condos, water parks, camps, and various types of schools.

Claims against government bodies follow a separate process with strict notice rules and deadlines.

Florida law sets a minimum for home pool safety. The Residential Swimming Pool Safety Act says new home pools must have at least one approved safety feature, like a barrier, a pool cover, or alarms on doors and windows leading to the pool.

Evidence can include accident reports, CCTV, maintenance logs, and witness statements. These things can help determine the facts of the accident and identify who should be held liable.

A claimant can recover past and future medical and therapy costs, lost earning capacity, and pain and suffering. In a claim filed on behalf of a child, the largest portion of the claim is often for future care and services required over the next several decades.

Why These Cases Require Careful, Early Investigation

These cases call for early investigation since records on supervision, safety equipment, and response times get harder to find over time. Florida law also gives most negligence claims just two years.

A strong claim usually takes a clear medical picture and a close look at what should have been done to prevent the accident.