Traditional Inuit methods could reduce drownings: KRG rep

Four people have drowned in this stretch of the Akulivik river over the past ten years. Now a local KRG councillor wants to know if traditional Inuit techniques could be used to revive drowning victims. (PHOTO BY DAVID QAQUTUK)

Following the drowning death of a young man in Akulivik this past summer, a Kativik Regional Government councillor is asking the region to consider the use of traditional Inuit methods to revive victims.

Last month, a 25-year-old man drowned in the Akulivik river, which flows through the Hudson Bay community.

Once the man’s lifeless body was pulled from the river, “someone called the police, as they should have done,” Eli Aullaluk, the KRG councillor for Akulivik, told council meetings in Kuujjuaq last week.

“But police told us not to touch the person, and they just took him to the CLSC [health centre] because that is their procedure.”

There, it’s not clear if nursing staff performed cardio pulmonary resuscitation (CPR) on the man, but he was pronounced dead at the health centre shortly afterwards.

Aullaluk said Inuit who were on the scene wanted to try and revive the man with a traditional method used to treat drowning victims, but weren’t permitted.

“The Inuit method is to lay him [a drowned person] down and not touch him,” Aullaluk told the council.

“Bubbles start to form around the mouth, and we’ve always heard you’re not supposed to wipe around the mouth.”

Those bubbles are meant to provide the first source of breath to the victim.

Aullaluk pointed to an instruction booklet produced in Salluit in 2004 called Nunavik Inuit Traditional Lifesaving Measures and Emergency Techniques, which describes traditional Inuit methods of treatment for hypothermia, frozen limbs and drowning victims.

In the case of a drowning, the booklet suggests bringing the victim ashore, sheltering him from the wind, and positioning him on a slant with the head downhill, which allows froth to appear at the mouth.

This froth may grow in size before the victim inhales them. If the frothing stops, the booklet suggests blowing into the victim’s right ear. The whole process can take three hours.

On the other hand, before starting CPR, the mouth is always cleared of any bubbles and efforts to revive drowning victims are often stopped after 20 minutes.

Other KRC councillors expressed their support for a more traditional approach to treatment.

Aupaluk councillor David Angutinguak shared a story about a hunter who years ago drowned along the Ungava coast. Other hunters had to wait until low tide to locate the man’s body and laid him out according to the Inuit method.

He later revived and is still alive today in Kangiqsualujjuaq, Angutinguak said.

For Aullaluk, though, his request is less about bringing back tradition but more about saving lives in a community that has seen four drownings in the last decade.

“We have had many drownings in my community,” Aullaluk said. “This is a problem.”

Aullaluk asked if an organization like Avataq Cultural Institute could work with Nunavik’s first responders to incorporate traditional techniques when dealing with drowning victims.

During KRG meetings last week, Kativik Regional Police Chief Aileen MacKinnon agreed to explore the idea.

Nunatsiaq News asked the Nunavik Regional Board of Health and Social Services if health officials have ever discussed the possibility of incorporating traditional lifesaving techniques at its health centres.

In an emailed response, the health board said “We are using the same practices used worldwide when it comes to lifesaving measures and emergency techniques.”