Near the end of my story, I am planning on having a character attempt suicide by drowning (Nolan). Another character (Robert) rushes in and tries to intervene, and succeeds; the two characters open up to each other on a bridge overlooking the river. An accident occurs and the person who planned on saving the other ends up falling over the edge and drowning. Without really thinking, Nolan jumps in after him and flounders around trying to find Rob. He locates him and a tour boat comes on by (conveniently) and pulls them onto the deck with life preservers or whatnot. Rob is unresponsive and has to be hospitalized immensely. I understand plenty of health problems should follow with him surviving, including breathing problems and brain damage. I am trying to figure out the extent of brain damage that would most likely occur. What kind of memory loss would he experience and what daily activities would be impaired? Thanks for any help and/or ideas.
I have no knowledge or experience that an expert would. But I think the effects vary in many ways. Some might be worse than others. Here's one video to give you some ideas:
I would think you could have anything in the range from not even noticeable to vegetative state. It would depend on how long they weren't breathing, how much damage was done to the lungs, how long before EMT got there. As for asking for specifics on what those times might be, I don't feel qualified to guess, but I do know that brain damage starts at around 5 minutes, after 7 it can get severe.