Home kit teaches infant CPR
Anyone who cares for children can learn in 22 minutes how to save a choking infant's life with cardiopulmonary resuscitation, says the American Heart Association.
Choking Deaths
Choking and suffocation are the leading cause of all injury deaths for infants under age 1 and the eighth leading cause of injury deaths for all ages, according to the American Heart Association, citing statistics from the Home Safety Council. Among them:
» In 2001, about 17,537 children under age 15 were treated in U.S. emergency rooms for choking incidents. Most were 4 and younger.
» In 2001, 864 children age 14 and younger died from airway obstructions. Of these, 87 percent were age 4 and younger.
» Sixty percent of choking incidents treated in emergency departments that are not fatal are associated with food items. Thirty-one percent involve coins and other nonfood objects.
» About 19 percent of choking-related ER visits by children under age 15 involve candy. Of those, 65 percent are from hard candy.
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They can do this with an infant mannequin and a DVD training program, provided in an AHA "Infant CPR Anytime, Personal Learning Program." The take-home kit also contains two fold-out quick-reference skills reminders.
"It's a great product, very easy to use," just by watching and practicing, said Sharon Keith, nurse and clinical educator at the Queen's Medical Center and coordinator for the AHA training center there.
Since the home is the most likely place for a child to choke or suffer cardiac arrest, it is important that parents, grandparents and other caregivers, even siblings, recognize the signs and be trained in infant CPR, she stressed.
It is ideal for busy people because they do not have to pay for a class or go to one, she said. "You can just buy a kit and do it on your own time. It's a wonderful skill to have. You might be in a situation where you could use CPR to save a life."
Keith said her 45-year-old brother had to use CPR on his infant after an accident. He learned the skill in the 10th grade, she said.
The Mini Baby mannequin, designed by Laerdal Medical manufacturing company, is an inflatable copy of a traditional infant CPR mannequin.
The 22-minute DVD walks people through training step by step: inflating the mannequin, doing chest compressions and rescue breathing, and relieving choking.
Keith said two populations are at risk for choking: babies who are sick, and curious children who will pick up things and put them in their mouth.
Unexpected cardiac deaths in infants and children usually occur because of trauma, sudden infant death syndrome, respiratory and cardiovascular causes, and near drowning, the heart association said.
The reported average survival rate of children after out-of-hospital cardiac arrest is 6.7 percent, the group said in a news release.