Responses

Download PDFPDF
Image challenge
Near drowning in a 48-year-old man
Compose Response

Plain text

  • No HTML tags allowed.
  • Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.
Author Information
First or given name, e.g. 'Peter'.
Your last, or family, name, e.g. 'MacMoody'.
Your email address, e.g. higgs-boson@gmail.com
Your role and/or occupation, e.g. 'Orthopedic Surgeon'.
Your organization or institution (if applicable), e.g. 'Royal Free Hospital'.
Statement of Competing Interests

PLEASE NOTE:

  • A rapid response is a moderated but not peer reviewed online response to a published article in a BMJ journal; it will not receive a DOI and will not be indexed unless it is also republished as a Letter, Correspondence or as other content. Find out more about rapid responses.
  • We intend to post all responses which are approved by the Editor, within 14 days (BMJ Journals) or 24 hours (The BMJ), however timeframes cannot be guaranteed. Responses must comply with our requirements and should contribute substantially to the topic, but it is at our absolute discretion whether we publish a response, and we reserve the right to edit or remove responses before and after publication and also republish some or all in other BMJ publications, including third party local editions in other countries and languages
  • Our requirements are stated in our rapid response terms and conditions and must be read. These include ensuring that: i) you do not include any illustrative content including tables and graphs, ii) you do not include any information that includes specifics about any patients,iii) you do not include any original data, unless it has already been published in a peer reviewed journal and you have included a reference, iv) your response is lawful, not defamatory, original and accurate, v) you declare any competing interests, vi) you understand that your name and other personal details set out in our rapid response terms and conditions will be published with any responses we publish and vii) you understand that once a response is published, we may continue to publish your response and/or edit or remove it in the future.
  • By submitting this rapid response you are agreeing to our terms and conditions for rapid responses and understand that your personal data will be processed in accordance with those terms and our privacy notice.
CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.

Vertical Tabs

Other responses

Jump to comment:

  • Published on:
    Drowning in a 48-year-old man
    • Allart M. Venema, Anesthesiologist Department of Anesthesiology, University Medical Center Groningen, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands
    • Other Contributors:
      • Anthony R. Absalom, Professor of Anesthesiology
      • J.K.Götz Wietasch, Professor of Anesthesiology

    Sir,

    We congratulate McDowell et al. on their educational and interesting case report.1 However, we would like to comment on their use of the term ‘near-drowning’. This, and other confusing and older terms which caused inconsistencies in the literature, have been abandoned by organisations such as the International Liaison Committee on Resuscitation (ILCOR) and the World Health Organisation (WHO) who recommend a more structured and clearer way of reporting drowning incidents.2,3 For several years now, drowning has been defined as ‘a process resulting in primary respiratory impairment from submersion/immersion in a liquid medium. Implicit in this definition is that a liquid/air interface is present at the entrance of the victim’s airway, preventing the victim from breathing air. The victim may live or die after this process, but whatever the outcome, he or she has been involved in a drowning incident’. 2,3 We would thus recommend that the authors and readers of your journal follow ILCOR and WHO recommendations, and simply use the term ‘drowning’ irrespective of the patient outcome. While this may seem pedantic, we do believe that it will assist with standardisation in drowning research and literature.

    References

    1. McDowell K, Carrick D, Weir R. Heart Published Online First: 18 may 2017. doi:10.1136/heartjnl-2016-311043.
    2. Idris AH, Berg RA, Bierens J, Bossaert L, Branche CM, Gabrielli A, Graves SA, Handley AJ, Hoelle R, Morley PT, Papa L, Pepe...

    Show More
    Conflict of Interest:
    Allart Venema is a member of the writing group on behalf of the revised Utstein Style For Drowning that has been accepted for publication.