Abstract

A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted on all cases of deaths due to drowning autopsied at the mortuary of Pravara Rural Hospital attached to Rural Medical College, Loni, a rural region in Western Maharashtra, India. The study was conducted over a period of 4 years, two years retrospective (record based) from September 2012 to August 2014 and two years prospective from September 2014 to August 2016. Data was being collected from medico-legal autopsy records of drowning victims. The cases were studied to know the socio-demographic profile of victims, manner of death and place of drowning. The cases represented approximately 3.42% of all autopsy cases. The manner of the death in most cases(68.89%) was accidental in nature. Majority of the victims were male (57.78%) belonging to the age group of 11- 20 years (31.11%). Most of the victims (31.11%) were students followed by housewives (28.89%). Most of the drowning cases (51.11%) occurred in well, followed by river (20.0%). Deaths due to drowning can be prevented by proper education and awareness programmes. Preventive measures include teaching swimming to children as well as adults, installing barriers controlling access to water and training bystanders in safe rescue and resuscitation measures.

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