The Role of Surfactants in Drownings

In patients who have a minor non-fatal drowning their only symptom may actually be a temporary self-resolving larynxospasm. In more severe higher grade drownings some water will get past the larynx and that water in the lower airway is going to cause bronchospasm, which causes surfactant washout. We think of surfactants within medicine as the biological chemical that's produced inside lungs that helps keep the alveoli open so that there can be effective gas exchange. The individuals who have an ongoing submersion, after about one minute of not breathing, they tend to lose consciousness. And then if this immersion continues, after about 10 minutes