Rescue Breaths in Paediatric CPR, why are they important?
Posted by Keri Hartwright Last updated 9th March 2021 reading time
Are Rescue Breaths still required?
The last year has shaken things up in the first aid industry a lot. With times when we couldn't deliver first aid and then times when we could only deliver to certain groups of people. There has of course been a requirement to pay particular attention to the hygiene practises when delivering training, as well an ensuring social distancing is followed, and there has been many debates about whether we need to assess rescue breaths when doing training or not.
One thing that has not changed in Paediatric CPR is the need for rescue breaths. They are still recommended as part of CPR when dealing with a collapsed child who is not breathing normally.
Children are likely to collapse initially with a respiratory arrest, and respiratory failure will lead to the development of cardiac arrest. When this occurs the likelihood of death is high.
Will this increase my risk of getting covid?
Doing breaths in a person who has collapsed and is not breathing will increase the risk of getting covid, however it needs to be balanced against the likelihood of death if rescue breaths are not given to a collapsed child.
Statement from the Resus Council
Paediatric advice
We are aware that paediatric cardiac arrest is unlikely to be caused by a cardiac problem and is more likely to be a respiratory one, making ventilations crucial to the child’s chances of survival. However, for those not trained in paediatric resuscitation, the most important thing is to act quickly to ensure the child gets the treatment they need in the critical situation.
For out-of-hospital cardiac arrest, the importance of calling an ambulance and taking immediate action cannot be stressed highly enough. If a child is not breathing normally and no actions are taken, their heart will stop and full cardiac arrest will occur.
Therefore, if there is any doubt about what to do, this statement should be used.
It is likely that the child/infant having an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest will be known to you. We accept that doing rescue breaths will increase the risk of transmitting the COVID-19 virus, either to the rescuer or the child/infant. However, this risk is small compared to the risk of taking no action as this will result in certain cardiac arrest and the death of the child.
Hopefully there will be few if any times in your life when you will need to call an ambulance.
Getting help is crucial when dealing with a collapsed adult or child who is not breathing. This is likely to be a really stressful situation and it may cause you to go into a state of panic and forget what to do next. Calling for help is key.
The numbers you can use are 999 or 112.
Information you need to give the call handler:
Where you are
What has happened
Anything that you think is relevant to the situation.
Be sure to answer all the questions that you are asked so they can get all the relevant information from you. If you are unsure what to do the call handler can talk you through what do in an emergency situation such as CPR.
If things change call them back and update them on any changes.
For more information or to book a course please get in touch below
What courses do we offer?
Here at Safety First we offer a range of first aid courses including:
Paediatric First Aid
Emergency First Aid at Work
First Aid at Work
First Aid for parents.
Some of these are available as blended courses and some are available on line. Get in touch to discuss this further.
