Minnesota has been hot earlier than normal and for an extended time in June. Especially with many kids missing out on swim lessons from the pandemic or not being around a pool in many months, safety advocates and medical experts are pleading for precautions to be taken this summer.
According to data from Hennepin Healthcare, there have been at least 25 fatal drownings in Minnesota this year so far. Five were children between the ages of 4 and 12.
Hennepin Healthcare pediatric emergency medicine physician Dr. Ashley Strobel says those numbers are higher than medical experts are used to seeing and extremely concerning.
“It really depends on how the child struggles as they go down, how much water they ingest, but kids can go from playing to being at the bottom of the pool extremely quickly,” Dr. Strobel said.
Near-drownings are just as dangerous.
“It can be a devastating event,” Dr. Strobel said. “It can require hospitalization because it can cause some damage to the lungs and depending on how long the child’s down, we don’t know the long-term effects of how that affects the brain and development.”
In Minnesota last weekend, authorities responded to three apparent drownings. A 9-year-old died after drowning in Carver Lake in Woodbury Sunday.
Katey Taylor with Abbey’s Hope, an organization dedicated to safe pools after her daughter Abbey died in 2008 due to a poorly maintained pool drain, told Blois Olson on the Chad Hartman Show Friday that she’s concerned about the sharp transition to a more normal summer.
“The world is opening up again and it’s so hot in Minnesota so early, and people want to be on the water,” Taylor said. “They love the water and want to be on the water, they’re just not mentally, I just don’t feel like we’re prepared. Usually we kind of ease into summer and I feel like we jumped into August.
Swimming lessons are vital in saving lives, making sure kids are confident in the water. But there are disparities in some communities of color and low-income families in access to those lessons which can be expensive. According to the CDC, drowning death rates are as much as 3.5 times higher for Black children than White. Minneapolis nonprofit V3 Sports Center in the coming years is bringing an Olympic sized pool to the northside with lessons offered on a sliding scale based on income.
Taylor said completely distraction-free supervision without alcohol is the most important thing to keep kids safe.
“So often when there is a drowning in a pool where the kids are in the water, everyone’s ‘watching’ but no one’s really watching,” Taylor said.
Dr. Strobel agrees, adding parents should be within an arm's-length of children under 4 years old, or children who are not strong swimmers.
“As a parent you can set some boundaries. Say: ‘You can only go into the water up to your waist,’ or ‘You can only go into the water up to your nipples.’ Those are some good boundaries that keep the head above water and even if they stumble they’re going to be a lot more easily retrieved and easier to save themselves by putting their feet down,” Strobel said.
Beyond supervision, swim lessons, and keeping a close distance from kids in the water, Dr. Strobel recommends Coast Guard-approved equipment because water wings can provide a false sense of security.
“If a child goes under (the inflatable wings) do nothing to support their head and it makes their arms go up which makes it a lot harder for them to push down and put their feet down,” Dr. Strobel said. “Nowadays what we’ve seen are these Coast Guard-approved water belts that go around the whole chest and the upper arms. Those actually provide a lot more protection.”
Taylor also recommends taking CPR and a lifeguard class, because you never know when the skills will be needed.
“Even the best of swimmers can get hurt,” she said.