We’ve all seen this tragedy or near-tragedy depicted on television: A drowning person’s arms are wildly flailing. Water is furiously splashing. He or she is frantically shouting for help, yet quickly becomes tired.

In most cases, however, actual drowning isn’t at all like that — it’s a lot quieter and far less dramatic than most people believe it is.

And because the signs of drowning are harder to spot, it is also much more terrifying. A New York mother of four knows how it feels — because she almost drowned as a kid while at sleep-away camp. “I was swimming out much too far in a lake at about age 10 or so, and I remember I gradually lost my strength,” she told LifeZette.

“I kept popping down below the water. I remember trying to wave, to attract the attention of a lifeguard or someone. I was definitely in trouble. I tried to float on my back in desperation — and it was definitely really quiet. Way too quiet. It felt like forever that I was struggling. Finally, help arrived — I think two lifeguards — and someone got me to shore. I was OK in the end, but it was absolutely petrifying, and the memory has never left me.”

A viral article on drowning, shared over a million times, paints a disturbing portrait of this silent killer that swimmers, parents, and lifeguards all should be aware of, with the summer swim season well underway.

Author Mario Vittone first published his seminal work on drowning in 2010. It was republished in 2018 and is now available on the Soundings blog.

Its message is simple but powerful: Forget what you think you know about drowning. The Hollywood dramatization of the “typical drowning person” doesn’t capture how quickly, quietly, and inconspicuously it can rob a human being of life.

“Drowning is almost always a deceptively quiet event. The waving, splashing and yelling that dramatic conditioning [via television or film] prepares us to look for is rarely seen in real life,” noted Vittone. “When someone is drowning, there is very little splashing, and no waving or yelling or calling for help of any kind.”

The author backs up his knowledge of drowning with research from Francesco A. Pia, Ph.D., who formulated what’s known as the instinctive drowning response. The response explains that people who are in the act of drowning cannot, in most cases, voluntarily control their arms or legs. They cannot wave or call out for help. Instead, they are trying to avoid suffocation.

Here are the actual telltale signs of drowning, based on Pia’s research, that people should look out for and know:

  • Head low in the water, mouth at water level
  • Head tilted back with mouth open
  • Eyes glassy and empty, unable to focus
  • Eyes closed
  • Hair over forehead or eyes
  • Not using legs
  • Hyperventilating or gasping
  • Trying to swim in a particular direction but not making headway
  • Trying to roll over onto the back
  • Trying to climb an invisible ladder

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Since most people who are drowning cannot kick to keep themselves afloat, “people can only struggle on the surface of the water for 20 to 60 seconds before submersion occurs,” Pia noted in a 2006 article for the Coast Guard’s OnScene magazine.

“It is the number-two cause of accidental death in children age 15 and under (just behind vehicle accidents),” Vittone wrote in his article. “Of the approximately 750 children who will drown [each] year, about 375 of them will do so within 25 yards of a parent or other adult. In 10 percent of those drownings, the adult will actually watch the [person] do it, having no idea it is happening.”

Statistics show drowning is a prevalent cause of death among minors.

“Dr. Pia was actually one of the first people on the aquatic sub-council of our Scientific Advisory Council,” Linda Quan, a fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics and vice chair of the American Red Cross Scientific Advisory Council, told LifeZette in an interview.

“He’s taught us a lot, and this work he did was absolutely seminal,” she said. “Simply from watching as a lifeguard at Jones Beach on Long Island, [observing] what people were doing in the water — he would watch as the lifeguards responded. So he was able to sit back and observe the whole process, which tremendously informed him.”

Quan added a caution, too: “What I want people to know about drowning is that it happens super-fast. And that what you see depends on, sometimes, the age of the person.”

She continued, “Kids don’t do any of this [screaming, splashing, waving arms]. They just sink like a stone. An older adult may [also] sink like a stone, if they’ve had a heart attack that really is the cause of the drowning. And a lot of adults may sink like a stone because they are drinking alcohol and that also — like a heart attack — strongly affects the heart, and makes people basically unable to [share] all these responses.”

Related: Olympic Skier Bode Miller’s Toddler Tragically Drowns at Pool Party

Quan recommends that people ensure there are “layers of protection” to prevent drowning and to designate “water watchers” to monitor for danger.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) published research from 2005 to 2014 on drowning, estimating that “an average of 3,536 fatal unintentional drownings (nonboating-related) annually in the United States — about 10 deaths per day.”

“About one in five people who die from drowning are children 14 and younger,” the CDC also said. “For every child who dies from drowning, another five receive emergency department care for nonfatal submersion injuries.”

The American Red Cross offers a number of resources to help people stay safe from this hazard. It offers swim lessons and lifeguard classes, and is a partner in the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission’s Pool Safely program.

It also offers guides for drowning prevention and shares tips on what to do if someone’s in trouble.

Someone in any depth of water who is yelling, splashing and waving for help — no matter how low the water — should never be ignored.

It even has a swim app that is available on mobile phones.

A final note: Someone in any depth of water who is yelling, splashing and waving for help — no matter how low the water — should never be ignored.

“This doesn’t mean that a person who is yelling for help and thrashing isn’t in real trouble — they are experiencing aquatic distress,” noted Vittone in his article. “Not always present before the instinctive drowning response, aquatic distress doesn’t last long, but unlike true drowning, these victims can still assist in their own rescue. They can grab lifelines, reach for throw rings” — and more.

Kyle Becker is a content writer and producer with LifeZette. Follow him on Twitter