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Quick Death Follows Unexpected Plunge |
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A fisherman was setting his crab gear over the side of his boat when a buoy line became entangled in the propeller. A crew member held onto the trap and was pulled overboard with it. He was not wearing a PFD. He seemed unaware of a line floating nearby, probably as a result of panic from the effects of cold water on his body. Frantically, another crew member jumped overboard and secured him with a line. After 11 minutes in the cold water, he was pulled to shore. But it was too late, he could not be revived. |
Tragedy at Spider Lake |
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Roger and his wife Peggy had just settled in to their campsite on Georgian Bay, when they heard a scream from across the lake. Grabbing a canoe, they paddled out to where a yellow canoe had overturned, only to see a young woman, named Angela, swimming to shore. When the woman finally noticed Peggy and Roger, she began screaming, "He's under the canoe! He's under the canoe!” But they could see no one. As Roger tells it, “ The water was dead calm, black and cold. Angela's clothes, which she had removed so that she could make it to shore, looked foreboding floating around the empty canoe and floating paddles.” As Angela sat on the shore, hypothermic and in a state of shock, police and search teams arrived on scene, and began to conduct a thorough search of the water. But it was too late. Raffaele Pace, a 23 year old student who had just graduated from Queen's University, drowned when the canoe he and Angela had been sitting in while washing dishes, capsized. Not wearing a life jacket, and disoriented by the shock of the cold water, Raffaele had begun swimming towards the shore. When he could swim no further, Angela went to him and struggled to get him out of his heavy clothes. They started sinking together, and eventually Raffaele let go, drowning in the frigid water, as his girlfriend watched, helpless. Had Raffaele been wearing a life jacket, perhaps he would have been able to stay above water and maintain his body heat, increasing his chances for survival. Instead, it took only a few minutes for a promising young life to be cut brutally short. “It is so hard to comprehend how a simple lapse, and an innocent could have such a tragic end.” |
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| The Body and Heat Loss | ||
| Stage 1: Initial immersion and the “Cold Shock” response | ||
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| Stage 3: Long-term immersion and the onset of Hypothermia | ||
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| Derek Wasn't So Fortunate | ||
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| A Mid-Summer Nightmare | ||
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| Cold water can be a deadly killer, even in the middle of summer. On July 5, 2000, 13-year-old Mathieu Cusson saved his father from drowning after their canoe capsized during a fishing trip at Comencho Lake, near Chibougamau, Quebec.
Mathieu, his father and a visiting friend were returning to shore with their catch shortly after lunch when their five-metre freighter canoe was capsized by two large waves. The three struggled repeatedly to remove the outboard motor and attempted to straighten the canoe in 4oC water, but the waves continued to push them farther out. As hypothermia began to set in, Mathieu saw his friend remove his life jacket and let himself drift away. Although weak, Mathieu swam to the unconscious teenager and brought him back to the canoe where his father was fighting to stay awake. With his father holding onto his friend, Mathieu swam with them in tow to a large rock, some 15 minutes away. While he and his father survived their five-hour ordeal, sadly, his friend did not. Mathieu’s friend became disoriented after being suddenly immersed in the cold water, and did not recognize the necessity of keeping his life jacket on, in order to maintain his body temperature. |
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| Stage 2: Short-term immersion and loss of performance | ||
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| Stage 4: Post-Rescue Collapse | ||
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A Cruiser-Suit Style PFD |
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