"A Healthy Swimming Coach in His 30s Died in Just Two Minutes"... The One Thing You Should Never Do in the Water [Health Talk]

[Financial News] A tragic drowning accident occurred in the United States when a veteran swimming coach in his 30s died while practicing underwater breathing. Despite being a "healthy athlete" with no drugs, underlying illness, or trauma, he could not avoid the fatal accident.
According to People magazine on the 14th, Jack Roney, 39, a swimming coach at North Carolina State University, was found unconscious in a pool on the 5th of last month and later died.
His wife reportedly stepped away briefly and returned to find Roney collapsed in the pool. Paramedics who arrived at the scene performed CPR for about 40 minutes and took him to a hospital, but he was eventually pronounced dead.
Police secured video showing Roney remaining underwater for about 2 minutes and 14 seconds in a pool about 1.8 meters deep shortly before he drowned. He briefly came back to the surface, but after going underwater again, he was unable to get out.
Experts warn that no matter how skilled a swimmer is or how healthy the body may be, holding one's breath underwater for an extended period is extremely dangerous and can lead directly to brain damage, cardiac arrest, and drowning.

Normally, the human brain triggers the urge to breathe when carbon dioxide levels in the body rise. But this warning system can fail if a person holds their breath underwater for too long or enters the water after excessive breathing, known as hyperventilation.
That is because oxygen levels in the body fall below the threshold needed to sustain brain function before carbon dioxide levels have even built up enough. In such cases, the brain can suddenly lose consciousness, as if the power had been cut, without any warning signs such as discomfort or an urge to breathe.
When a hypoxic blackout occurs, it does not simply lead to drowning. It can trigger a deadly chain reaction in the body.
The brain is the organ that consumes the most oxygen, and if oxygen supply is cut off for just 4 to 6 minutes, brain cells begin to die. If rescue is delayed after loss of consciousness, the person may suffer permanent motor impairment, speech disorders, memory loss, or, in severe cases, enter a vegetative state or become brain-dead.
When oxygen in the body is severely depleted, the heart muscle also loses its oxygen supply. This can trigger a fatal arrhythmia, causing the heartbeat to become irregular, or lead to myocardial ischemia, in which the heart cannot perform aerobic respiration and suddenly stops in a cardiac arrest. If cardiac arrest occurs in the water, emergency treatment such as CPR is difficult to provide within the golden time, and the survival rate drops sharply.
Roney's family strongly raised concerns, saying, "We hope to raise awareness of how dangerous it is to hold your breath underwater for a long time, and that this kind of tragedy will never happen again."
[email protected] Moon Young-jin Reporter