The case of 10-year-old boy who died an hour after swimming because of dry drowning draw attention on this little-known phenomenon, which kills about 4,000 Americans each year, 1,400 of them being children.

Dry drowning is drowning without water, meaning that you are not drowning immediately after some water reaches to your lungs, but it is more of a delayed effect. The phenomenon can occur between one hour and 24 hours after someone’s lungs were affected by a small amount of water. This phenomenon can result in respiratory distress, meaning the lungs are unable to deliver oxygen to the blood and, ultimately, to the brain.

Dry drowning is more likely to happen in people swimming for the first time or in those who are not good swimmers. Therefore, these people should not be left in a swimming pool without careful supervision.

People suffering from asthma are also exposed to dry drowning more than healthy people.

The warning symptoms of dry drowning are extreme drowsiness, breathing problems, coughing and dramatic behavior changes. If any of these symptoms are present in people who had previously gone to swimming, then they should immediately be taken to the nearest hospital, as dry drowning is not something that can be treated at home. The treatment involves putting a tube into the lungs thus supplying oxygen and getting the breathing process restarted.