Dutch pediatricians are concerned about the number of children who drown. That figure has decreased for years, partly due to better swimming lessons and measures in swimming pools. However, there has been no decline for a few years now. With many holidays in their own country, the doctors even fear an increase this year, also because many children are behind with swimming lessons.
About eight children die each year from the consequences of severe oxygen deficiency under water, according to figures from the Central Bureau of Statistics. But that number says nothing about what children are left with from a near-drowning, says pediatrician Joke Kieboom of the UMCG in Groningen, who did research into this.
“Each year, about 80 children end up in hospital after a drowning or near-drowning, many of them in intensive care.” Kieboom is concerned that that figure will not fall either. “Usually these children are left with permanent damage or even become severely disabled.”
It’s a frustration for doctors, she explains. “You see a beautiful baby lying there, who was completely healthy until an hour before.” The children have often had a serious oxygen deficiency under water, which has caused damage to the brain. “It is frustrating that we can’t do much more,” says Kieboom, who wants more attention to be paid to preventing drowning.
The figure below clearly shows that the number of fatal drownings has decreased for years, but has not stopped for some time, even among children between 0 and 10 years old:
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