Step 1: The key feature of immersion syndrome is instant death from a reflex cardiac arrest the moment the body hits the water, mediated by the vagus nerve.
Step 2: Because the heart stops via this vagal reflex rather than the lungs filling with water, the condition carries the alternate names hydrocution, submersion inhibition, and vagal inhibition. Triggers include sudden cold-water contact, feet-first duck diving, and epigastric impact.
Step 3: Wet drowning (water in lungs with froth) and dry drowning (laryngospasm-driven asphyxia) involve the respiratory tract, not a vagal cardiac arrest, so they are excluded.
Step 4: Secondary drowning is a late death after rescue, again distinct from the immediate reflex death of immersion syndrome.
\[\boxed{\text{Hydrocution}}\]