Water Rescue Research

Nationally, there is a gap in academic research on water rescue. The body of medical literature on drowning and resuscitation is vast and constantly expanding to help physicians make evidence-based medical decisions. But public safety agency data on water rescue is fragmented, and data sharing is problematic when many municipalities compete for limited resources. 

Goal Zero aims to identify best practices for water rescue by aligning accurate emergency response data, rescue asset deployment models, and current medical guidelines on resuscitation and drowning. This information must be open source, free to all public safety agencies, apolitical, and easy to interpret. 

Research questions:

• Do water rescue team response times lead to improved patient outcomes?

• How many water rescue assets per capita result in the best patient outcomes?

• What water rescue response model results in the best patient outcomes?

• What is the optimal elapsed time that public safety agencies should target to put trained water rescuers in the water to improve drowning outcomes? This is the goal time from submersion to rescue with a positive neurological outcome.

Goal Zero plans to create a national consensus statement on water rescue best practices.