Newspaper Review (2)

Date : 5 December 2008
Title : Currents linked to teen's drowning
From : The Straits Time (home. C8)

Summary
The strength of the currents off Siloso Beach was likely to the reason that caused the death of a teenager, but State Coroner could not exclude the influence of the drug(ketamine) dounf in the victim's system. On 4 Dec, State Coroner Victor Yeo returned a verdict of misadventure in the death of Tay Demin, 17, who was drowned in the sea off Siloso Beach on June 25. According to a report, Tay's blood and urine contained ketamine. Investigations could not establish how ketamine came to be in his system as he was not known to be a drug abuser.

The court heard that seven teenagers had gone for a swim at the Sentosa beach at 1.30pm that day. Tay was seen floating in the water not long after but was told off by his friends who thought that he was pretending to have difficulties. By the time Tay had started struggling, his friends' attention had turned to another member who was also fighting to stay afloat. However, when the group returned to shore, Tay, who was known to be a good swimmer, was nowhere to be seen. No one heard him or seen him struggle in the water.

A frantic search was mounted by the group and two lifeguards. It took 20minutes beforea lifeguard, spotted Tay's lifeless body on the seabed near where he was last seen. The water where Tay's body was found was 2m deep. Tay was immediately pulled to shore but could not be revived. He was taken to SGH where he was pronounced dead.

Reflection
After reading this text, it is very likely that the currents in the sea were too strong. However, one could not exclude the presence of ketamine could have cause a loss of consciousness, confusion and disorientation. In my opinion, I think that even though there's a group of friends going swimming with you, especially in the sea, it is best to have an adult by your side. Evem though you could be considered a very good swimmer when swimming in a small swimming pool where there isn't any waves and where it's only an enclosed area, you will never know what will happen. Just like Tay, i doubt that he knew there would be currents or else, why did he still went to swim? For fun? To show off?

And this article also gave me a very important warning. Although Tay was not a drug abuser, but ketamine was indeed found in his body and we can't deny this fact. To me, I think that maybe he was feeling unwell or sick and had taken medicine that contains a little percentage of ketamine, thus resulting in ketamine found in his body. So, whenever one is feeling unwell or had medicine, it's better not to swim or do something dangerous as the medicine may have side effect after taking it, causing illusion, drowsiness, etc.

KaiXin