NEUROLOGICAL AND PSYCHOMETRIC STUDIES IN CHILDREN SURVIVING FRESHWATER IMMERSION ACCIDENTS

Abstract

A study of the neurological and intellectual sequelæ of childhood near-drowning is reported. Results are from a total population study, without selection, of all freshwater immersion accidents in which consciousness was lost in the water. Such accidents affected 56 children in the city of Brisbane and environs over the period 1971-75. 54 of these children have been re-examined medically and psychometrically. Over 95% of children who survived such accidents were neurologically normal. The median I.Q. of survivors was 110 (range 90 to 137), which is higher than that of the general population. There is a suggestion that visual-motor (performance) skills are particularly vulnerable to freshwater immersion hypoxia. In 20% of survivors subscale disparities between verbal and performance skills exceeded 15 I.Q. points. No correlation between the post-immersion I.Q. and either estimated immersion-time or water temperature was demonstrated in this study. No long-term emotional or personality disorders were encountered. Uncommon gross clinical sequelæ of prolonged immersion in fresh water included spastic quadriplegia and gross mental retardation. All children in this study were apparently dead at the moment of rescue; despite this, the prognosis of near-drowning in childhood is excellent.