In many drowning incidents, people nearby don’t know the victim is drowning. It often takes a trained lifeguard to spot someone in trouble. From watching movies, we’ve come to expect a drowning person to thrash about, wave, shout for help, and try to swim to safety. Quite often in real life, NONE of that happens. Drowning swimmers usually go through the Instinctive Drowning Response, in which they look like they’re “climbing a ladder underwater”, while their mouths constantly go above and below the waterline. Victims rarely wave or call out, because they’re instinctively focused on staying afloat and breathing. It often takes less than a minute before they completely submerge. To find out more, read this article and watch the video below from WIVBTV.

via slate.com