Friday, May 24, 2024 | 2 a.m.
It was a warm, sunny day on Lake Mead when two park rangers heard distressed screams on the water.
Searching for the source of the sounds, they discovered that two people wearing poorly fitted life jackets had overturned and were struggling in the water. The jet skis they were riding overturned in last weekend’s high winds, officials said.
Park rangers quickly deployed a throw ring and dragged the jet skiers to safety, but the incident could have been much worse, officials with the National Park Service said. The parks service operates the Lake Mead Recreational Area.
As the weather warms and more people are visiting the lake or taking a dip in their pools, local experts are stressing the importance of wearing proper safety gear, supervising young or inexperienced swimmers and brushing up on drowning prevention strategies.
“We do expect to see drownings,” said Dr. Carla Laos, the medical director of the pediatric department at St. Rose Dominican Hospitals, Siena. “We are always happy when we try to educate our families in terms of safety and make sure you’re watching the kids around the bodies of water, (so) preparation is part of it.”
Lake Mead is packed with visitors on holiday weekends, such as this three-day weekend for the observance of Memorial Day. And with the crowds comes the opportunity for tragedy — two people drowned and another 23 had to be rescued by park rangers last June over Father’s Day weekend, officials said.
The park recorded 29 fatalities of various causes in 2023, and long weekends are typically when they see the most deaths occurring within the Lake Mead National Recreation Area, said John Haynes, public information officer. Although there’s no concrete reason why, Haynes believes the numbers are higher simply because more people are visiting the lake and putting themselves at risk.
Haynes said there have already been 10 deaths in the park this year, with one person drowning. It’s likely to increase in the next few months as the weather heats up and more people visit the lake, he said.
Drowning deaths in general are trending upwards for the first time in decades, according to the Vital Signs study, released last week by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
From 2020 through 2022, about 4,500 people died annually by drowning in the U.S. — a 500-person increase compared with 2019, the CDC said. The CDC cites a lack of access to basic swimming and water safety skills lessons as a possible contributor to the rise in drowning deaths.
Over half of U.S. adults — roughly 40 million people — have never taken a swimming lesson, it said.
Drowning is the No. 1 cause of death for children ages 1 to 4 in the United States, and the CDC study shows that drowning rates were highest among that age group. Adults age 65 and older as well as Black people of all ages are also at a higher risk of drowning, according to the CDC.
Non-Hispanic Black people and non-Hispanic American Indian or Alaska Natives have the highest drowning rates when looking at race and ethnicity.
“I’ve seen firsthand the effects of drowning: families forced to say goodbye to their loved ones too soon,” said Debra Houry, the CDC’s chief medical officer, in a news release. “CDC’s drowning prevention experts collected high-quality drowning data to better understand how we can protect people in communities across the United States. Understanding the barriers people face to accessing basic swimming and water safety skills training can help us better understand how to address those barriers, decrease drowning rates, and save lives.”
In Clark County, six children age 14 and under drowned in 2023 and 10 in 2022, according to the Southern Nevada Health District. Despite the decline in fatal drownings, submersion incidents have been steadily rising for the past four years, from an estimated 26 in 2020 to 46 in 2023.
Submersion is used in this case to describe both fatal and nonfatal drownings, which can lead to significant impairment of the survivor but not death, the health district said. Even if someone survives a submersion event, “time is tissue,” Laos said, explaining that the more time someone goes without oxygen, the more organ tissue is damaged.
It takes only seconds for a person submerged to stop receiving oxygen to their brain and other organs, and minutes to begin causing long-term damage, she said.
Laos and her team are already preparing for what could be an influx of near-drowning events or deaths caused by drowning now that more children are out of school for the summer. They typically see anywhere from three to five children each summer enter the emergency room following a drowning event.
No school plus warmer weather equals more kids going near bodies of water to cool off and placing themselves at greater risk of drowning, which can be a sometimes deadly equation. It’s especially dangerous for young children who are impulsive, may not have taken swimming lessons or cannot communicate when they’re in trouble, Laos noted.
In addition to ensuring the emergency room staff are trained in areas like resuscitation, Laos’ team partners with local emergency services like the Henderson and Clark County fire departments to educate and coordinate on how to treat a child that has drowned.
“The scary part of it is that every single drowning occurrence is preventable, so we know that if families and communities are really aware of the ABCD’s, we could get it down to zero,” Laos said, referring to the “ABC & D’s of Drowning Prevention,” which has been promoted by agencies such as the SNHD and American Academy of Pediatrics.
The acronym represents four prevention tips: active adult supervision, barriers for pools, classes in swimming or CPR and using safety devices. Laos suggests all parents and guardians should memorize the ABC and D’s of drowning prevention.
Having an adult who knows how to swim and can constantly scan the pool to watch children is one way to reduce the risk of a drowning event. Installing non-climbable, four-sided fences around pools; enrolling in swim lessons or CPR classes; and properly using safety devices like life jackets can create safer pool environments, Laos said.
Haynes added that anyone looking to dip their toes into Lake Mead this summer should leave their pool toys at home. With sudden monsoons and double-digit wind gusts, inflatable pool toys can blow into dangerous areas of the lake — sometimes even while children are still on them. Inflatable pool toys are prohibited at Lake Mead, he emphasized.
“We’re just really stressing that people come out, they have a really great time, that they really keep safety in mind in everything they do,” Haynes said. “We want you to come out and have a lot of fun, but we want every single person to also return home safe.”
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