Citation

Estella AA, Bello Fontaiña LP. Monaldi Arch. Chest Dis. 2011; 75(2): 135-137.

Affiliation

Intensive Care Unit, Hospital of Jerez, Jerez de la Frontera Cádiz, Spain. litoestella@hotmail.com

Copyright

(Copyright © 2011, Fondazione Clinica del Lavoro Edizioni)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

21932699

Abstract

400,000 incidents of sea drowning take place every year. We report the case of a woman, 34 years old, attended on the beach by external hospital emergency services after suffering immersion in seawater resulting in drowning due to acute respiratory failure. She was admitted to the critical care unit and an emergency fiberoptic bronchoscopy was performed, extracting a large quantity of sand and algae. The respiratory function improved and FiO2 requirements were gradually reduced following the procedure. After 8 days of mechanical ventilation the patient was extubated, with good clinical tolerance and was transferred to a ward.

Language: en