Child drowning emergency

General

In Germany many small children die from drowning each year.Most of the time, the children fall unsupervised into small garden ponds or swimming pools. Two factors represent a serious situation: the time spent underwater results in a lack of oxygen, which is caused on the one hand by the child's reduced breathing and on the other hand by the inhaled water and the resulting reduction in the capacity of the lungs. On the other hand, there is hypothermia, which occurs much faster in small children and is much more dangerous than in adults.

Initial measures

As soon as the child is safe, both the cardiovascular situation must be restored and the hypothermia that has occurred must be reversed with warm blankets etc. It is important that rewarming takes place slowly and not e.g. should be tried by a hot bath. This can lead to a fatal cardiac arrest as cold peripheral blood is drawn to the heart, causing the heart to stall. Warming blankets and emergency foils are a safe measure to rewarm the hypothermic body with its own heat. The cardiovascular situation must be restored by ventilation and cardiac massage / resuscitation, possibly also by defibrillation. Due to the elapsed time, however, many children die after drowning accidents (out of 1840 accidents in Germany per year, 800 children die).