CNN
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Leading heart health organizations are urging schools and parents to teach young children lifesaving skills like calling 911 and administering CPR.
On Wednesday, the American Heart Association, the European Resuscitation Council and the International Liaison Committee on Resuscitation published a scientific statement in the journal Circulation detailing the evidence showing that school-age children as young as 4 years old know how to call for help in a medical emergency and that, between the ages of 10 and 12, children can deliver effective chest compressions when performing cardiopulmonary resuscitation, better known like CPR.
“Although young children do not have the strength to perform proper chest compressions, they can learn basic information about what to do if someone suddenly collapses,” said statement writing committee member Dr. Comilla Sasson, an emergency physician practicing in Colorado and vice president of health sciences for the American Heart Association, in an email.
For example, children as young as 4 years old can learn what 911 is and how to call it, as well as know your address so a dispatcher can send emergency medical services to your home.
Sasson said her own children, ages 6 and 8, learned very quickly how to call 911, what chest compressions are, and even what an AED, or automated external defibrillator, is and how it’s used to help people with heart problems. arrest.
About 70% to 90% of people who have out-of-hospital cardiac arrest die before they get to the hospital because the people around them don’t always know how to help them, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention..
“We know that one of the biggest barriers to increasing survival from cardiac arrest has been, and continues to be, not acknowledging someone has had cardiac arrest, activating 9-1-1 early, starting CPR, and getting an AED as quickly as possible. soon as possible. Sason said.
As part of educating children about life-saving skills, “teach young children how to assess consciousness and normal breathing,” the scientific statement says.
Various medical groups have long emphasized the importance of teaching young children what to do during medical emergencies at home, school, or in other settings. In 2018, the American Academy of Pediatrics published a policy statement advocate for the training of children, parents, caregivers, school personnel, and the public in basic life-saving skills, as well as the proper use of AEDs.
Sasson said the American Heart Association has played a role in getting more than 40 states to require some form of cardiac arrest and CPR education as a prerequisite for high school graduation.
“But we know that the more often someone is exposed to this information, using high-frequency spaced learning approaches, the more likely they are to act in an emergency. The AHA believes that no one is too young or too old to learn about CPR, AEDs and cardiac arrest,” Sasson said. “We believe this statement can help us describe to students, parents, teachers, staff, and leadership how important children are in saving lives.”
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