I did some light research and asked AI, which said it would be extremely dangerous. But come on, it wouldn’t be that dangerous, right? We evolved from animals that lived in the ocean.
I did some light research and asked AI, which said it would be extremely dangerous. But come on, it wouldn’t be that dangerous, right? We evolved from animals that lived in the ocean.
No. The first part is completely wrong.
Embolism describes a blockade of a vessel from blood flow. That’s not what will happen with seawater nor normal water.
Seawater is hyperosmolar and therefore would draw water into the vessels from the intracellular region and cause hypertonia (high blood pressure), but it takes a fuckton of it to make the blood so hyperosmolar that the erythrocytes are disfigured. (To give you a comparison: Sea water has around 3% saline content. We used to give hyperosmolar solutions that had 7.2% and starch in it - so with a much stronger effect). In the end the kidneys would very likely fail and kill the person in combination with the hypertension.
Normal water has the opposite effect - it’s hypoosmolar and therefore goes the other way. (And causes edema but not embolism)
Air is a totally different story and air embolisms are a real threat - but even air needs much more than one would think. (A few ml won’t hurt an average.)
Infection? Fuck yes.