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14-year-old boy drowns after falling into river while fishing with friend in Chiba

6 Comments

A 14-year-old by drowned after he fell into a river while fishing with a friend in Katori, Chiba Prefecture, on Sunday.

The boy's friend called 110 at around 11:40 a.m. and said his friend had fallen into a river and did not surface, TV Asahi reported.

Police and firefighters conducted a search and found the boy, Sota Kiuchi, in the Osuka River about an hour later. He was in a state of cardiac arrest and taken to hospital where he was declared dead on arrival.

According to the police, Kiuchi is believed to have fallen into the river from a sluice gate.

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6 Comments
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There are so many drowning stories in Japan. Why is drowning so common here? Growing up, reading about drownings was a rare occurrence, and I grew up 5km from the sea, and many large rivers nearby.

-5 ( +2 / -7 )

He was in a state of cardiac arrest and taken to hospital where he was declared dead on arrival.

AKA he drowned.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

AKA he drowned.

Which is something that still requires a medical professional to determine. Lots of people in state of cardiac arrest can be reanimated by CPR and not everybody can take the responsibility of saying this is no longer possible.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

He did not know how to swim.

Instead of telling the root cause, Japanese media makes it as if it was fate.

When 14, you jump in river to have fun normally.

How to swim well enough is seen in Japan as facultative, hence the high rate of drowning.

As a father, I forced sometimes ago my kids to go to swimming pool, to be sure they would never be afraid in water and manage well enough.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Sadly, it seems that Japans' swim schools are little more than cash cows. They need to follow other countries' leads and teach water safety and resuscitation.

RIP young fella.

-2 ( +0 / -2 )

Hard to know what happened. Was he wearing bulky winter clothes which hampered his movement? Hit his head on the way in/down? Cold shock response on hitting the water?

Could have been any number of things, not necessarily that he couldn't swim.

Condolences.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

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