Drowning Prevention

Peter Wernicki, MD
UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School ’84

Peter Wernicki, an orthopedic surgeon specializing in sports medicine, gave the keynote address at the World Conference on Drowning Prevention on May 10 in Vietnam. He is medical advisor to the International Life Saving Federation and a member of the American Red Cross advisory council on first aid, aquatics, safety and preparedness.

A native New Jerseyan, he worked as a lifeguard at the Jersey shore as a young man. “Most of a lifeguard's work is preventing drowning, not saving people from drowning, which they also do. If you are a lifeguard and make a whole lot of rescues, you probably aren't doing your job,” he states.

A graduate of the University of Virginia, he is the son of a pharmacist who served in the Medical Corps in an evacuation hospital during World War II. “My father’s amazing stories of what went on in surgery fascinated me. I always knew I wanted to be a surgeon,” Wernicki says. He and his wife, Joanne, a radiologist, practice in Vero Beach, FL.

Wernicki explains that 95 percent of the drownings in the world are in underdeveloped countries, where there are no lifeguards and there is not a culture of swimming. Even in Florida, he says, drowning is the second-leading cause of death in those younger than 15.

“Teaching people how to swim and having them teach others is a low-cost remedy,” he advises. “We have to get the knowledge out.”