CPR and Choking Emergencies

CPR and Choking Emergencies

A five year old that attends daycare decided to bring lunch to school instead of being served the school lunch. In his lunch box, he brought a container of cut up hotdogs, pretzels, and some strawberries along with a bottle of water. As he began eating his lunch, he was talking with his friends who were sitting at his table as he picked up a piece of hotdog. Not concentrating on chewing the hotdog completely, he begins to laugh at a joke that one of the little boys told, in the midst of laughing the hotdog piece gets lodged in his throat which has now cut off his airway and unable to breath.

                 The proper protocol to follow in this type of emergency is to act immediately and see if the child is breathing or not. Once it has been established that the child isn’t breathing, the teacher needs to have someone call 911 and request help. While help is on the way, the teacher should begin to perform cpr until the emergency squad arrives. I selected to perform cpr rather than the Heimlich; because, during my cpr and first aid training this past September, we were instructed that ages five and under are to be given cpr, and over five to be given the Heimlich depending on the child’s size. In the midst of trying to perform cpr and await the arrival of the paramedics, somebody should call and alert the young boy’s parents of the situation. If the parents are unavailable, then it is imperative to begin calling the next contact on their emergency card. Once the paramedics arrive, step back and allow them to do their work; however, stay close to comfort the child when everything is all over. At the conclusion of the incident, the child’s teacher should fill out an incident report stating what happened, who was called, how it was resolved, and how it could’ve been resolved. The director, teacher, and parent should each sign the report and a copy be given to the parent and one placed in the little boy’s file.

                Advance planning is very important, especially when working with children. When emergencies occur, there isn’t time to experiment something that you saw someone do before. Having cpr and first aid training is required by most daycare employees upon being hired. “Doing something halfway is better than not doing anything at all.”  Having a plan and being prepared ahead of time can help you respond correctly and quickly should an emergency was to occur. (Robertson, Cathie 2010)

                A little girl who is one years old attends daycare while her parents work. One day while at daycare, the little girl was having so much fun playing with her friends while she was speed walking when something distracted her; causing her to attention to be directed towards the sounds, while trying to figure out what the sound was and where it came from, she stopped paying attention to where she was going and walked smack dab into the wall.  After realizing she had walked into the wall she began to cry and looked for sympathy.

Once her caregiver picked her up to console her, she began to check her forehead for any bumps or bruises. Noticing that indeed a knot had began to form; she immediately got an ice pack and attempted to place it on her forehead, which made her scream and cry louder. Once she was calm and ready to get up and go back to playing, the caregiver started to fill out an accident report. After filling out the report, the teacher then needs to call her parents and inform them of her accident.

Because it is an injury to the head, you should always be prepared to treat it as a serious case, because you can never tell if damage has been done inside the head or not. Anytime a head injury occurs, you should never allow that person to go to sleep within the first 30-45 minutes of an accident to prevent falling unconscious.

Information that needs to be kept on hand at all times is; a first aid kit, emergency contacts for each child, and a file that explains each child’s allergies and reactions on it. Adults need to also make sure that they have the attendance sheet and at all times keep a head count of everybody in your class.