Illness Prevention and Emergencies

                                                                                CPR and Choking Emergencies

A CPR emergency is something every childcare facility should be prepared to handle because it is something that cannot be predicted. In this scenario will be discussing what should be done in the event of a choking emergency.

There is 4 year old preschool student appears to be choking on a piece of food; because he is coughing, the teacher encourages him to keep coughing because that means he is still breathing . The teacher tells her aide to take the class next door to another teacher and call 911. After the teacher takes the children to another classroom and calls 911 she calls the child’s parents and notifies them of the situation.  While the aide is taking care of her orders the teacher starts performing the proper techniques to remove food from a choking victim’s mouth.

With a situation such as this one, advanced planning is the key to saving the child’s life. Without the proper knowledge of CPR and 1^st aide the child may not make until the emergency services arrive. It is also important to keep in mind that if you have not been professionally trained in CPR you should attempt to perform it because you can possibly make matters worse. 

In order to prepare for a scenario like this a childcare facility should make sure they have the following items on hand; emergency phone list, emergency contact information for each child and a plan in place so everyone knows there role.

The next scenario involves the same 3 year old preschool student; however a few things have changed because the child has stopped breathing and has stopped coughing. The teacher follows the same procedures and asks her aide to take the children to another teacher’s room, call 911 and then notify the parents. While the aid is taking care of removing the class and making phone calls the teacher starts to perform CPR on the child until he regains consciousness or until the paramedics arrive. 

As mentioned before it is imperative that the staff is properly trained in CPR and First aid and that they remain calm.   A situation such as the one mentioned above can turn into something worse if the rest of the class is in an uproar. As previously mention a emergency phone list, parent emergency contact information and a plan came help to make this situation a little easier to manage.