[First therapy of drowning accident].

Rescue and medical care of people in a drowning accident is a rather rare incident which still needs special attention. The rescue process can be technically challenging and only a well experienced team will be able to act professionally without any time loss. At a first step all team members have to protect themselves. Especially close collaboration of technical and medical rescue teams are of high significance and should be part of future exercises. Hypothermic persons should be protected from further cooling and gently rescued in a horizontally way. If a patient has no circulation continued cardiopulmonary resuscitation and immediate transport as soon as possible to the nearest hospital with an extracorporeal rewarming device is recommended. To avoid any time loss it is essential that the respective hospital is informed immediately and the fastest mode of transport selected. Astonishing cases show that this procedure is very promising even after long time submersion.