Prevent your child from becoming a drowning statistic

Every day more than one child drowns in South Africa. Over a third of these drownings are children under the age of fourteen years. The Medical Research Council consistently lists drowning as the third-highest cause of accidental deaths in children under the age of five, with only pedestrian motor vehicle accidents and shack fires being higher risks.

Most drowning and near-drowning incidents happen when a child falls into a pool, or is left alone in the bath. Sixty to 90 percent of drownings occur in residential pools and this is a statistic that parents cannot afford to ignore.

Although most children drown in swimming pools, children can drown in less than one inch of water. Children under the age of five do not understand the dangers of falling into water and do not normally splash or cry for help. Drowning can be a silent event.

Although the death statistics with regards to drowning are shocking, the consequences of near-drownings are even more so. For every child that dies from drowning, five suffer from permanent brain damage as a result of a near-drowning. It takes only four minutes without oxygen for irreversible brain damage to occur.

We encourage all child minders to be extra vigilant if children have access to swimming pools, ponds or any other body of water. 90% of children who drown are under some sort of supervision at the time.

This proves that, in spite of good intentions, no parent is able to protect their child from drowning by ‘keeping an eye open'. It is irresponsible of parents to not do all they possibly can to keep their children safe.

In the event of a drowning, the following assisting steps are recommended:

• Prevention is, obviously, far better than trying to cure - especially when it comes to drowning cases. Having multiple layers of safety around pool and spa areas or other open bodies of water (such as a safety net, a closed fence, a childminder and a surface alarm) can prevent tragic accidents.
• Get the victim out of the water as soon as possible, but do not become a victim yourself. Make sure it is safe for you to enter the water first.
• Handle the victim with care. Many submersion incidents are associated with neck injuries, so keep movement to the back and neck to a minimum.
• Assess to see if the victim is awake or not.
• Check for breathing. If the victim is not breathing, administer two slow rescue breaths ensuring that the victim's chest JUST starts to rise.
• If the victim shows no response to the rescue breaths, start CPR.
• CPR is vital, even if it is an amateur administering it. Keep on doing it until someone who is trained in advanced life support arrives and can take over. All parents should learn how to administer child CPR as it does differ from adult CPR. There has also recently been a worldwide revision in the CPR technique and it is vital that even current first aiders be retrained according to the new protocols.
• Call, or have someone call, a recognised ambulance service as early as possible during this sequence. Whoever calls for the ambulance must give the dispatcher an accurate location of the incident and a contact number at the scene. Never hang up on the operator and always return to the rescuer to inform them that you have called for help.