If a person heart stops beating for whatever reason the statistical chances of survival are extremely low, and even if they do survive they suffer much organ damage including the brain. These days with more readily available defibrillators the odds are a little better but not by much. Something less than 10%. Of course if you happen to be in a hospital when you arrest the chances are somewhat better. With drowning lungs full of water cause all sorts of additional problems. Extremely cold water heightens survival chances and lessens damage. A case in point being a guy I knew. After surfing a river bar he was paddling back across the river to his car, the water in the river was about 6 degree Celsius being fed by snow melt. Crossing the river he collided with a channel marker and got knocked off his board, the leash got wrapped around something on the marker and the river flow took the board and pulled him under. It is assumed his hands were too cold to be able to get the leash off. He was under water for at least 15 minutes and spent significant time without a heart beat. It wasn’t until the ambulance arrived that they got his heart going again but I guess the manual compression kept a bit of blood circulating. He suffered significant memory loss and one of his lungs died. This was over 30 years back and I have heard that he has never been quite right since. It’s not like the 80s TV show Bay Watch where after a couple of chest compressions and few puffs of mouth to mouth the victim ( usually a pretty woman) coughs, hop to their feet , give the rescuer a hug and walk of into the sunset. If only. Would any risk stop people surfing, of course not. I have read that in Reunion Island a few years back the officials tried to ban surfing because of the number of shark attacks. People still went surfing.

@mitseraffej5812 Thanks for your comment. It's certainly amazing how cold water drownings, especially in winter like when someone breaks through ice into the extremely cold water, and even after several minutes like you said they are rescued and revived with little apparent damage!!! I know all too well about being saved in a hospital after your heart stops! In 2011 I suffered a splenal artery aneurysm, and the survival rate for these is extremely low! My story is just too long to explain in detail here, but my heart stopped twice on the short ride in the ambulance to the hospital and they used the defibrillator to start it up again. Once they cat scanned my abdomen at the hospital the vascular surgeon working that night diagnosed me and I was rushed to emergency surgery. I had lost so much blood from internal bleeding that it distended my stomach and I was in excellent shape, still surfing Pipeline and other breaks on the North Shore regularly. The vascular surgeon pegged the diagnosis when she looked at my stomach compared to the rest of my body, and she ordered an immediate cat scan of my abdomen which revealed a large mass of blood. During the emergency surgery I'm told that I flat lined 3 times and they were able to start my heart up each time. But I suffered a fourth heart failure and despite their best efforts I couldn't be revived and "time of death" was called. I was out there for one minute and 15 seconds, but the guy bagging me refused to stop because he said he had never seen someone fight for their life like me before. My heart started up and registered on the ekg, and they all immediately went back to work on me, eventually they successfully clamped and tied off my fully severed artery and removed my spleen and the mass of blood in my abdomen. They say I had lost an enormous amount of my blood, like 6-7 units!!!! They said it's medically impossible for me to have survived losing that much blood plus the extreme trauma of the whole thing! I was in a coma for 7 days, and I woke up literally 1&1/2 hours before they were going to do a trachiotomy in my neck for a breathing tube, which they expected would kill me! I suffered nerve damage to my left leg and foot, which has disabled me a bit, but I was in the hospital for 3&1/2 months then a resident in rehab hospital of the Pacific for just under 12 months recovering and doing physical therapy to learn to walk again. So yeah not many people survive things like drowning, without long term health issues, most die! Back when I had 5 of my close friends die surfing Pipeline, was before they had those compact defibrillators, and long before my friend and famous Makaha lifeguard, Brian Keaulana and others revolutionized life saving in the surf in Hawaii using the jet ski's to respond quickly and get the person to shore as fast as possible. It revolutionized life saving in the ocean, in the surf in particular all over the world to this day!!!!! The day I was trying to revive my friend and get him back into Shore at Pipeline the surf was very big, breaking on the outer reefs and second reef Pipeline, and it's just very difficult to do and can take too much time! Thankfully, today with the jet ski's and our world class lifeguards on the North Shore as well as the other islands they do amazing life saving regularly! Already this winter surf season, at Pipeline there have been some terrible, near drownings, one of them was one of the best surfers on the pro tour from Brazil I believe. He's recovered well from what I understand, but it's seriously heavy surfing Pipeline!!! As surfers we go through so many crazy Wipeout, unscathed but it just takes one bad one and you can be in serious trouble or worse!! On a lighter and more positive note, only surfers, expert ones in particular, know why we risk our lives doing it. It's just that there's nothing like getting a really long, deep tube ride and getting spit out the end, especially at a break like Pipeline. Only surfers know the feeling!!!!! Aloha from beautiful Hawaii! D.L.

Good insight also had to bring those places up in the recent video