Essay On Drowning In Fresh Water

Drowning, also defined as a respiratory impairment caused by being in or under a liquid, restrains one’s intake of oxygen. The lack of oxygen prevented from being distributed throughout the body causes it to slowly shut down then the victim will eventually go unconscious and sometimes die. Although drowning restricts one’s breathing, drowning in freshwater, and drowning in salt water will react in the body in two completely different ways (Helmenstine, “Drowning in Freshwater). The simple difference whenever it comes to drowning in salt or fresh water is whether the lungs are filled with a hypertonic or hypotonic solution. When drowning in freshwater, the water is considered hypotonic, meaning when water enters the cell, it triggers them to swell and can even cause them to burst ((Helmenstine, “Drowning in Freshwater). The video the class saw in both lab and lecture showed how the cell could not handle the excess water when placed in a hypotonic solution and eventually swelled up exploded. That is what is happening whenever someone drowns in freshwater. The freshwater will first seep into, and fills the victim’s lungs and then enter the bloodstream. As this water enters the
A hypertonic solution, as we learned in lab and lecture, is when the cell has more solute than water. When a cell is placed in a hypertonic solution, it causes it to shrink, which was shown again from the video presented in lab and lecture. Therefore, salt water takes blood from the bloodstream into the lungs, filling them until the victim is no longer able to exchange gas and air. Without the exchanging of air, oxygen is no longer able to provide for the bloodstream. Finally, without the exchange of oxygen, the heart will eventually stop working then leading to death (Zidbits, “Do Salt and Fresh