Prevention is the drowning scourge cure

The recent report about drowning being the biggest killer of children in Thailand between 2006 and last year is sad indeed. It’s sad not only because some parents lost their kids, but also because these premature deaths are preventable.

According to the report, released early this week by Public Health Minister Piyasakon Sakonsatayatorn, drowning beat dengue and road accidents as the main cause of death among children younger than 15. The number of deaths totalled 10,923 during that period, he said.

Most cases involved swimming accidents or falling into water-retention facilities, such as excavated ponds and reservoirs.

It was found that water in excavated ponds is usually deep. Some ponds have no fences, warning signs or any life-saving equipment nearby.

Of the children who drowned, more than 400 were children under five who died in buckets, tubs and fish tanks filled with water in their homes, according to the minister.

The minister did not accredit any researcher, but the report must have been based on the previous work of Dr Adisak Polpalitkanpim that he carried out while working at Ramathibodi Hospital. For more than two decades, the doctor has attempted to alert Thai society to this problem.

But there has been little, if any, change. Drowning is still a leading cause of death in Thailand. It is the No.3 killer worldwide with 372,000 drowningrelated deaths every year on average, the minister said citing a report by the World Health Organisation (WHO). Of this number, half are 25 years old or younger.

Apart from drowning, Dr Adisak also highlighted the dangers of playground gadgets, swings, etc, that are not up to proper standards and can cause deaths and injuries among children.

Although the minister stopped short of blaming anyone, we know that in many cases negligence on the part of parents, families, schools and, in certain cases swimming facilities, are to blame for such untimely, preventable deaths.

The report reminded me of an encounter I had with a careless parent only a few months ago.

One early morning, a friend and I, while staying at a Rayong hotel, decided to start off the day with a brief swimming session. However, upon reaching the swimming pool, we found out, to our disappointment, that the facility would not be opened for another hour and a half.

We discussed among ourselves whether we should or could break the rules a little and not wait until it was open — meaning we would have to swim without a lifeguard on duty. In the end we decided to take a risk and go swimming but not in the deep end.

As we started to swim, we saw a man in his early 40s approaching the pool. Accompanying him was a young boy, carrying a balloon and a foam board. My first impression was: the father and son might just want to — like my friend and I — go for an early morning swim.

We just swam on without paying attention to them until we saw something unusual. The boy had been left by himself. This shocked both of us.

At that moment, Dr Adisak’s research work came to my mind. How could a father leave his son like this?

Perhaps, just perhaps, he felt his son was not in danger because two strangers were sharing the facility at the time. But I believe he would still have left his son there anyway, even without us in the vicinity. And I am sure this was not the first time, judging from how good the boy was at taking care of himself. He swam carefully, always staying in the shallow end. But he was too small. His feet could not reach the bottom of the pool.

We eventually befriended the boy, who was only nine, and swam together. We learned that his parents wanted to visit the market that morning. While we appreciated the father’s good intentions — at least he didn’t leave the boy alone with those smart electronic devices like other busy parents (swimming is much better for the son’s health) — what he did was not acceptable.

Instead of the planned brief swim, we eventually changed our minds and stayed on longer in the pool — just in case.

The boy’s father returned nearly an hour later to pick him up and they left the pool together, neither of them realising how close they had been to a possible tragedy.

We decided not to say anything to the father though we very much wanted to. We wanted to tell the father it was too dangerous to abandon his son unattended in a swimming pool and he might end up regretting it for the rest of his life.

Now I regret that I did not bring this up with the father.