CPR and Choking Emergencies

My first scenario is a three year old girl is choking on a small object she found in the classroom at the daycare center. At first the child is able to cough so the teacher encourages her to keep coughing. The child is then unable to cough, talk or cry. The teacher tells her assistant to call 911.The teacher then slightly bends the child over and gives five rapid back blows in between the shoulder blades. She uses the heel of her hand to do the back blows being careful that her fingers are positioned correctly to avoid hitting the child in the back of the head. After performing the back blows she finds the child’s navel with her hand. After finding the navel she curls one hand into a fist and places the pointer finger and thumb part of the hand just above the navel. After placing that hand she puts her other hand on top. She then begins to give the child five chest thrusts by pushing in and up. She continues to do this until the object moves. The object does not have to come flying out it may be that by doing these back blows and chest thrust the object turned and went down.

My second scenario is that a five year old boy in a preschool is found on the floor in the gym not moving. The teacher goes over to the boy and asks are you ok? While tapping him on the shoulder the boy does not respond. He is unconscious, but there is no one else around. The teacher then tilts the boys head by placing one hand on the chin and the other on the forehead. By tilting the head she begins to listen for signs of life, and then checks for a pulse. The boy is not breathing so she places a breathing mask over his mouth, keeps his head tilted and pinches his nose. She proceeds to give him two steady rescue breathes by sealing her mouth around his and watching for the chest to rise then fall. If the chest doesn’t rise then his head would need to be reposition. She then does chest compressions by placing the heel of one hand on the breast bone and the other on top curling the fingers in between the other hand. She positions her arms so that they are above the hand and gives thirty steady chest compressions in about 20 seconds. The chest compressions for a child over one should go down to one to one and a half inches. She now checks for responsiveness and the child still is not responding. There was a phone in this room, but it was all the way on the other side, and for CPR it’s most successful when administered immediately (http://www.redcross.org ). She must do at least two minutes of CPR before she can stop to call 911. After calling 911 she continues the CPR until the child becomes responsive or help arrives.

Advance planning allows you to be better prepared to handle these situations. Advanced planning also helps to make sound decisions during an emergency when there may be fears. It can also help reduce the risk and loss of someone’s life. I think being CPR and first aid certified can help with responding to theses emergencies. It also helps to have training on rescue breathing. Even though you may be working with a specific age group it’s best if you are not only trained for CPR in the specific age, but infants, child and adults because you never known if others are not prepared for their age group or have a staff that may need CPR. Another step adults should take to handle these kinds of emergencies is making sure they have a first aid kit that is well supplied and kept replenished. They can also keep up to date emergency information on each child, by asking parents every couple of months if the information is still correct.





References

http://kidshealth.org/parent/firstaid_safe/emergencies/cpr.html

American Red Cross: Prepare for Emergencies with American Red Cross First Aid, CPR and Automated External Defibrillator (AED) Courses
http://www.redcross.org/portal/site/en/menuitem.53fabf6cc033f17a2b1ecfbf43181aa0/?vgnextoid=42eebd7df52bb110VgnVCM10000089f0870aRCRD&currPage=ae14bd7df52bb110VgnVCM10000089f0870aRCRD