What sort of ‘drowning’ is this? Excessive inhalation of steam?
If he stayed too long in the hot water it causes two things to happen, both can cause convulsions.
One is dehydration and the other is elevated body tempeture.
The body will reach the smae tempture as the water, so 105 is not unheard of.
Once convulstions happen he drowns.
I posted the link earlier but here is the link again:
http://www.mikewhitesmom.blogspot.com/
Here is a partial from the podcast interview:
Interviewer - And now, a special Seoul Podcast.
Welcome to a special edition of the Seoul Podcast.
We are breaking away from our usual format because we felt this is a special incident that needs singular attention. On Saturday May 10th Michael White and his mother Stephanie were with friends spending a day in a sauna near Daegu. Michael was the only man in the group so he had to bathe separately from the others. A good while later Stephanie was told by the sauna staff that he had to go to the hospital – she had to go. What she saw next was any mother’s nightmare. Michael was in an ambulance, unconscious. He was found floating in one of the pools, and he died shortly thereafter.
Big suspicious questions have surrounded his death, like: why did staff wait almost an hour to notify Michael’s mother that there was trouble? Why did they call the hospital and say that he was already dead, when he wasn’t? And why, in an active bathing room before a major holiday did no-one help him?
Tonight we have Michael’s mother Stephanie White. Thank you for joining us.
Mother - Thank you for having me.
Interviewer - This has to be so difficult.
Mother - Actually the hardest part is over, because the worst thing that could have ever happened to me has already happened. So, you know, it’s not as bad as it was a week or so ago.
Interviewer #2 - But I think the specifics of the situation or the way things happen in Korea compounded the situation; or that’s my opinion.
Mother - Ah, definitely there are some huge differences in how things are handled in an emergency situation. I can definitely agree with that.
I did get some more information from the police yesterday. I can fill out that timeline a little bit more.
One of the newspapers said – I can’t remember which one – that a staff worker saw him but thought that he was bathing, and what part of floating face down resembles ‘bathing’ I don’t know. But they left him alone and came back later and saw that he was still in that condition and that is the point at which they decided to help him. So as near as I can piece together from the crumbs of information the police will give me, the staff worker saw him at 11.02. Eighteen minutes later, at 11.20, is when the staff member saw him again and attempted to pull him from the water and resuscitate him on his own.
Now we don’t have absolute confirmation that anyone at the sauna was attempting to resuscitate him but that is the impression I was left with by the police. Now whether that was… I don’t know what to make of that situation.
Interviewer - How crowded was it that day?
Mother - It was very crowded. In the women’s side… My friend and I, we are both adults and her daughter (eleven Korean age) were foreigners so we stand out quite a bit, and (we) live in a fish-bowl, so, we enjoy going to the sauna for the relaxation in the salt pools, but at the same time we know everyone in there is watching us. We prefer to kind-of-like scrub down by ourselves, and it was impossible to find a shallow row that was unoccupied by Korean customers.
Interviewer - That’s really crowded.
Interviewer #2 My question was - because I know you don’t live in a city – how many white people were there? How difficult it would have been to find the white mother of the white boy?
Mother - There were two white women…
Interviewer #2 - You and your friend?
Mother - Yeah.
Interviewer #2 - Just you two?
Mother - Just us two and her daughter. Her daughter is not necessarily white, but she is foreign, and so two foreign women and a foreign child…
And my son he’s 6 foot tall.
Interviewer - He looks really big.
Mother - Yeah. Even back home he towered over all his peer group. So he’s always just been the gentle giant. He’s never been, you know, a fighter in any sense of the word. He couldn’t even do Taekwondo. I mean he could do it but he just didn’t get into the sparring part of things. He didn’t like that part. And so he dropped out of Taekwondo because he didn’t like to have to do the sparring part. So he’s really just a gentle person. He’s just big.
Interviewer - He certainly would have stood out in that crowd because of his height.
Mother - Yes and he’s very pale. He’s not tanned. I don’t tan very easily. He does have black hair, which, you know, can help him blend in a little bit but not as much as myself and my friend who are both sandy blonde.
Interviewer - I assume he had no health problems previously.
Mother - Not diabetic, no health problems. I’m in the process of getting his medical records from his birth hospital now. There’s just so much red tape everywhere because I’m not in the country to request the medical records myself. Having to sign proxies, send it to a friend, it’s just a big mess. I have a congenital heart defect. And so, because of my heart defect, when Michael was born, they did an ultra-sound and he has no congenital heart defect, he’s had no heart problems throughout his life. His only medical problem is to be allergic to bee stings for which I became epinephrine certified in case I ever had to give him a shot for anaphylactic shock.
Interviewer - Right. Now this is what I found a little screwy that the police can’t do investigations looking for evidence. Am I right there?
Mother - I don’t know about looking for evidence but what they told me is, on two separate occasions, this was last Tuesday after Mike’s autopsy, I went into the police station to give my official statement. Because at the hospital they did want to take my statement but I was in no condition to talk to anyone. It took me a couple of days before I was even able to speak.
But anyway, back to the subject. So last Tuesday and yesterday morning, on those occasions they told me that they are not allowed to go out and just do these mass, you know, searches for witnesses. They didn’t say anything about evidence. They said they weren’t allowed to question witnesses. The witnesses had to come in voluntarily to provide information.
A South Korean “sauna” is more than just a steam room. It will have showers for cleaning up, then a dry heat room, a hot soak tub, a cold bath (with an overhead supply), plus other areas for cleaning up. Then you can put on a robe and mingle with the other sex in a common area where other services might be supplied (massages, etc.) It can be a whole day affair.