Since 2014, 17.000 people have died, drowned, in the central Mediterranean in an attempt to reach Europe. The shocking numbers have not changed the situation. Since November 1st at least 132 people drowned [1].
How does it feel to drown? Professor Claus-Martin Muth, one of the world's leading experts for water accidents, explains.
How does it feel to drown?
Drowning is a death by suffocation, which is extremely painful. The fight to get back up to the surface causes a lot of stress reactions, in order to survive. People are fully conscious as they inhale water, which must surely make them panic, when their lungs don’t fill with air, but with water.
How long does it take to drown?
Since drowning is often associated with a struggle to survive, with people fighting their way back to the surface again and again, it is difficult to say how long it takes to drown. Children generally drown faster, due to their smaller lung capacity.
How can the process of drowning be described from a medical point of view?
The process of drowning is complex. People try to hold their breath as long as possible. This leads to an accumulation of CO2 in the blood. This CO2 retention leaves the person gasping for air, as a reflexe of the respiratory center, that the person can’t control. Water is inhaled, mixing with air and mucus in the airways. Finally, spasms occur due to an oxygen deficiency in the brain, and this is the phase in which people lose consciousness.
Drowning is a silent death. When drowning, the voice glottis closes relatively quickly and does not re-open. People have no voice to cry for help.
Can people drown even with life jackets?
Yes, absolutely! People can also drown at the water surface, when they are washed over by waves multiple times and swallow the spray. Then the process of drowning takes even longer. IIl-adjusted life jackets, particularly on children, can cause the lower body to float up to the surface and the head to be submerged.
Many silenced deaths / A silent death.
The EU formed a European agency in 2004, FRONTEX, for “border management” and search and rescue missions in the Mediterranean. The European Commission increased FRONTEX's total budget to over one billion for 2019-2020. This year, the agency “achieved” a 21% fall in border crossings and has provided no information about the amount of people saved in the same period of time. Der Spiegel revealed on 26th of November 2020 the agency has tried to cover up its involvement in illegal pushbacks of refugees.[2]
Seven NGO rescue ships are still barred from returning to sea by the Italian and other European authorities. Alarm Phone, a non-governmental Search and Rescue Coordination organization, reports that most of their calls to European Coast guards are not answered, leading to their statement of November 26, that “it is not the sea that is killing people: it is Europe and those who want to keep it a fortress.” Drowning in the Mediterranean is not only a silent death, it is also a silenced death.
Comments