Drowning is one of the most significant causes of unintentional death in developing countries and also one of the most grave causes of concern globally about injury-related fatalities in all autopsy cases. Drowning is a preventable cause of death and in recent times, the fatalities in drowning cases have been decreased due to community education, safety training and standard treatment protocols. The present cross-sectional retrospective study was conducted for four years from 2015 to 2019 in the Department of FMT at LSLAM Government Medical College, Raigarh, Chhattisgarh, to know the pattern of drowning cases with the distribution of cases according to year, season and activity of victims in all age groups and both sexes. In our study, out of a total of 2,244 autopsy cases, 3.61% of cases were of drowning. The maximum number of cases occurred in the rainy season, which is 41.98%. The maximum number of victims were males (74.07%), followed by females (25.93%) and the most commonly affected age group belongs to 21–30 years in 23.46% of cases. Maximum death occurred in ponds (32 cases, 39.51%), followed by rivers and dams. Most of the victims, that is 53.09%, were taking baths and in most cases (i.e., 58.02%), no significant history of the deceased was found. In our study, the maximum victims were identified (92.59%). About 25% of total drowning cases were found in the decomposed state. Accidental drowning cases are largely preventable, therefore by promoting educational awareness and training, swimming preferably in safe places under the observation of known and skilled persons may reduce the fatalities in drowning cases.
RB et al. (2026) studied this question.