Secondary drowning

[ilovebigbirds]

20F here!
I was drinking a glass of water too fast that I felt I inhaled a gulp and I couldn't breathe for a couple of seconds. I tried coughing and my left chest (right below the collarbone) hurt. But then it all disappeared.
Now I am scared to go to sleep because there might be water in my lungs and if I lie down I could suffer from secondary drowning... Is this possible?

[Deepseathree]

No. Sorry to be blunt. Sometimes that’s what I need when I’m having anxiety over something.

If you need more though, secondary drowning is a rare uncommon event that would have signs leading up to it. You just aspirated a small amount of liquid which the body already expelled or absorbed. The body is pretty hot at handling problems. But also not good at handling other things, like your fight or flight.

The collarbone issue is probably nothing more than you being hyper-fixated on your body due to worrying. I would assume it’s just from coughing.

[ErinKC]

Agree with Deepseathree - secondary downing is a rare situation that occurs after a person literally almost drowns, having gotten significant amounts of water in their lungs. We all aspirate water and other things from time to time and our bodies work it out. If people could die from water going down the wrong way, that would quickly become the number one cause of death because it happens all the time!