Question.. Why don't waterboard victims drown?

[tridim]

It seems like if water is poured into your nose it would eventually be inhaled into your lungs. What am I missing here?

[Pavulon]

1. Not designed to kill

just to make a person suffer pain. Lots of things that are torture do that. Electrical shocks using high voltage and very low amperage are not life threatening but are painful.

[tridim]

4. I understand that, but I don't understand where the water goes after in enters the nose.

Is it swallowed? Does it vent out of the mouth?

The only other option is that it goes into the lungs, in which case it's no different than actually drowning.

[Laelth]

2. Lungs elevated above the head. Water can't get into the lungs. n/t

:dem:

-Laelth

[tridim]

6. I think in that new video only his legs were above his head.

The rest of his body was flat.

[Bandit]

3. Some do

In fact that is exactly what happens. It is controlled drowning and some do indeed drown completely and die...

[glitch]

14. And some drown, die and are resuscitated. Over and over again.

But oh no, it's not torture! :sarcasm:

[inthebrain]

5. Depends on the condition of the person it's performed on

I could imagine some getting pneumonia from aspirating all that water. Not to mention someone being thrown into an irregular heart rythm and needing to be defibbed.

Someone with a histort of Angine is going to have an MI.

Stroke for those with high blood pressure.

Stress induced asthamatics are fucked.

Not to mention that anyone with HIV, becuase of the immune response to infection, are probably even more prone to opportunistic ones.

[Ken Burch]

7. If they drowned, they couldn't make false statements linking Al Qaida and Iraq

That's why they didn't just shoot them in the first place.

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

8. Gravity.

[tridim]

11. The lungs can create negative pressure to counteract gravity

Especially if the mouth is closed.

I think the mouth being open is important so the lungs can vent (which is why they usually put the cloth in the mouth). I think they made a serious mistake in the waterboarding video we saw today.

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

13. I was trying to keep it basic. Seems like you understand plenty, why the question?

[tridim]

16. Just guessing, I thought maybe someone knew for sure.

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

17. My understanding is that it isn't the water it's the wet cloth.

From all accounts that I've heard firsthand it isn't copious amounts of water. Not really sure though. I know the positioning is very important it's how they keep from killing our troops.

David

[JVS]

15. Consider though that inhalation of water is relatively late in the process

"However, it's true that in most cases of drowning there is a fairly predictable predeath scenario, to wit: (1) panic, violent struggle; (2) attempts at swimming; (3) apnea, or breath-holding, during which time the victim often swallows large amounts of water; (4) vomiting, gasping, and inhaling (as opposed to swallowing) of water; (5) convulsions; and finally (6) death." http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/192/do-you-go-down-three-times-before-drowning

Unless the victim has made a point of breathing out before the water begins to overcome them, I highly doubt that inhaling water would happen on the early side

[tridim]

18. That makes sense.

I always assumed breathing would take precedence when the brain panics.

[FarPoint]

9. I think that's a greater question!

Maybe a medical person knows about this. I bet some have choked to death or suffered a heart attack afterwards.

[csziggy]

10. They could - one story about the CIA use said they had doctors on hand to revive the victims

One thing that can happen even if water is not inhaled is there can be a spastic response that closes the throat and prevents breathing. That can kill just as thoroughly as water in the lungs.

Thus after waterboarding Zubaydah and KSM 266 times by March 2003, it apparently became clear to the CIA that in the hands of the interrogators working for the CIA, waterboarding was not the "harmless" procedure it was originally described to be. In fact, waterboarding was considered to be so dangerous by the CIA's own doctors, that they mandated a physician with an emergency tracheotomy kit be in the room while the waterboarding took place.
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Failure to perform a tracheotomy in the presence of airway-obstructing laryngospasm can result in loss of oxygen severe enough to cause brain damage and death. The memos do not indicate whether or not any of the waterboarded detainees required a tracheotomy. However, a heavily censored footnote on page 15 of the "2005 Bradbury Memo" discusses what appears to be a near-death episode that must have happened with Zubaydah or Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the only detainees known to undergo "extensive waterboarding" by the CIA. This event may be the basis of the change in waterboarding protocols:

In our limited experience, extensive use of the waterboard can introduce new risks. Most seriously, for reasons of physical fatigue or psychological resignation, the subject may simply give up, allowing excessive filling of the airways and loss of consciousness. An unresponsive subject should be righted immediately and the interrogator should deliver a sub-xyphoid thrust to expel the water. If this fails to restore normal breathing, aggressive medical intervention is required. Any subject who has reached this degree of compromise is not {censored hereafter}.

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/4/24/723455/-They-Added-a-Tracheotomy-Kit-to-the-Torture-Chamber

[Joe Chi Minh]

12. I expect they die of heart attack first, with multiple, partial drownings.