The Case of the Drowning Men Read Free

would necessarily have to be sullied, a few investigations clos ed, and taxpayers’ monies liberally spent in order to increase security , and a sense of security, in communities close to water .
    Fences, river patrol s , safe buses, surveillance cameras , targeted campaigns of every variety aimed at damage control ― these costly measures could be justified because public officials kne w that , to govern properly , people couldn’t be living in fear day and night, and they couldn’t be distrust ful of their law enforcement officers , either . Most importantly, university town s couldn ’t expect students to continue flock ing to them in droves , as many in this region have been accustomed to for over a century , if the y’re suddenly afraid they’ll end up victim s of violent crime s there . W h en it comes to social strife and chaos, in the end t he end always does justify the means employed , a nd, as can be seen today , th ese strenuous attempts to solve “ the problem ” ha ve been effective in crushing the ugly stories and criticism s that were running rampart not so long ago .
    A ll throughout the northern corridor now , a truce appears to be in place and holding, and , for the most part , it’s been pretty quiet these past couple of years .
    But then the re is th at plaguing issue of a steadily rising body count .

 
Chapter 2 : Anatomy of a Drowning
    For those who think that drowning is a pleasant way to go , think again. Drowning is a violent assault on the body during which the frightened victim fiercely, albeit briefly, battles to survive. Death follows exhaustion within only two or three minutes.
    Technically, it is true that a person can drown in as little as a cup of water. A cup, a puddle, a ditch, a bathtub—anytime liquid enters the air passages and lungs, even if someone doesn’t die immediately, it can still turn fatal because there are a host of medical complications which arise that are always life-threatening, such as pneumonia and renal failure. These type of delayed fatalities are known as “secondary drownings” and, although their symptoms may develop over the course of several days, or even longer for some patients, they’re usually triggered within only a few hours of the initial in cident.
    But most victims drown fully submerged in water when the nose and mouth inadvertently become covered. Sometimes, when there is an instantaneous glottal spasm blocking off oxygen , or a preexisting medical condition, death can be automatic without any signs of a struggle. In the majority of drownings, however, this is not the case. Struggling is one of the key stages leading to unconsciousness and death. In fact, so intense can this final fight for life be that, in more than ten percent of drowning fatalities, an autopsy will actually reveal bruised and ruptured muscles, particularly in the shoulders, chest and neck. Evidence of injuries of this nature suggest to a medical examiner the strong likelihood that a victim was alive in the water at the time of the ir demise and not placed there already dead.
    The stages of a full-immersion drowning event are fairly quick and, because the victim’s airways are being blocked, either by water and/or the epiglottis, it’s often completely soundless . There will be panicked thrashing as the victim desperately attempts to get air and to grab onto nearby objects for security , and then, when they can no longer hold their breath, they’ll begin to inhale water in large quantities, gulping it into their stomach as well. This action also rapidly circulates water throughout their other systems and bloodstream with differ ing biochemical reactions depending on whether they’re in saltwater or in fresh. This last stage of drowning ends with coughing, vomiting, convulsions, loss of consciousness, death , and rigormortis.
    Very shortly after the victim dies their body will start to sink. If retrieved soon thereafter, their arms and hands may display cadaveric