Sea drowning: a case report and review of the literature.

400,000 incidents of sea drowning take place every year. We report the case of a woman, 34 years old, attended on the beach by external hospital emergency services after suffering immersion in seawater resulting in drowning due to acute respiratory failure. She was admitted to the critical care unit and an emergency fiberoptic bronchoscopy was performed, extracting a large quantity of sand and algae. The respiratory function improved and FiO2 requirements were gradually reduced following the procedure. After 8 days of mechanical ventilation the patient was extubated, with good clinical tolerance and was transferred to a ward.