How to save a drowning person?

How do you save a drowning person/animal/child? How do you decide whether to attempt or not?

• Once instinctively tried saving one, he would rather try drown me to gasp a breath. I almost got myself killed(cramped my leg), before we survived.

• Answer:

  My main answer, unless the person is in water where you can touch bottom with head and shoulders out of the water (and even then it's pretty dicey) don't. It sounds cruel and cold, but without training it is insanely difficult rescuing people from water. Even WITH training it's very dangerous, and all other opportunities should be exhausted (reaching them with a pole, throwing them a device, or getting a boat out to them... remember reach, throw, row, go) before you go after them. When someone starts to drown, their automatic reflexes kick in (which will kill them) and they can't think straight. They'll look like they're trying to climb a ladder in water. They won't cry out because they're only focus is breathing air in when they can. If you get to them without knowing how to deal with them they'll climb up you. this is why reaching out with a pole or a hook works really well because they'll try to climb up it. Flotation devices aren't quite as useful because they'll try to climb up them. A drowning person cannot think, they can only act.