(no subject)
Sad story in the SMH about a young man, fit and an excellent swimmer, who drowned in a backyard pool - he was trying to see how far he could swim underwater. Apparently trying to do this can cause you to black out suddenly, instead of instinctively surfacing for breath. As a kid I once had an experience like this in our backyard pool - luckily for me it triggered tachycardia, a very rapid heartbeat, instead - so the story is doubly scary. Warn your kids not to try and see how far they can swim without taking a breath.
(That was the first time I had tachycardia. I took the asthma medication Ventolin for years before a doctor twigged that I didn't actually have asthma and took me off it. It gave me panic attacks and episodes of rapid heartbeat which felt like the thumping of my pulse was shaking my whole body. The only thing which stopped the tachycardia was lying down on my left side, which I did in some pretty odd places - a post office, Fisher library, a DNA laboratory, etc - or waiting for about ten minutes for it to switch itself off. The same doctor who took me off the Ventolin also checked my heart thoroughly, and the rapid pulse was nothing more than a harmless quirk. I haven't experienced it for years. I still occasionally have palpitations if I lie on my right side.)
(That was the first time I had tachycardia. I took the asthma medication Ventolin for years before a doctor twigged that I didn't actually have asthma and took me off it. It gave me panic attacks and episodes of rapid heartbeat which felt like the thumping of my pulse was shaking my whole body. The only thing which stopped the tachycardia was lying down on my left side, which I did in some pretty odd places - a post office, Fisher library, a DNA laboratory, etc - or waiting for about ten minutes for it to switch itself off. The same doctor who took me off the Ventolin also checked my heart thoroughly, and the rapid pulse was nothing more than a harmless quirk. I haven't experienced it for years. I still occasionally have palpitations if I lie on my right side.)