Many children drowned consecutively
Recently, children's hospitals in Ho Chi Minh City have continuously received and treated many cases of drowning children. In which, there were cases with serious, critical conditions, even tragic deaths, even though the accident occurred at the swimming pool with someone supervising it.
The City Children's Hospital said that the unit had treated K (10 years old, Vinh Long) with a diagnosis of stage 4 drowning, acute pulmonary edema and lack of brain oxygen.
According to medical history, the child had an accident while swimming in the swimming pool. After about 4 minutes of not seeing the child, the father discovered the child lying on his back in the water and called but did not respond. The child was brought to shore, the rescue worker performed a chest X-ray for about 2 minutes, the child vomited in manywaters but was still unconscious.
The child was transferred to Tra Vinh General Hospital, placed on a ventilator, recorded pink foam through the ventilator, then transferred to Tra Vinh Maternity and Pediatrics Hospital for intensive resuscitation treatment for 4 days. The children continued to be consulted and transferred to the City Children's Hospital.
Previously, Children's Hospital 1 said that within just one month, the unit had recorded 2 cases of children in the city dying from drowning. Notably, accidents all occurred at swimming pools with low water levels, rescue workers and watchers.
Preventing drowning in children
Doctor Nguyen Minh Tien - Deputy Director of the City Children's Hospital recommends that parents when letting their children swim need an adult to follow closely, not take their eyes off, and promptly report rescue when the children show signs of drowning. Parents should let their children learn to swim properly, warm up thoroughly before going into the water to avoid bursts, and equip them with knowledge of emergency cardiac arrest and respiratory arrest at the scene to reduce the risk of death and brain sequelae.
Doctor Dinh Tan Phuong - Head of the Emergency Department of Children's Hospital 1 said that children should be taught swimming skills and self-floating skills; children with a history of diseases such as atrophy should not participate in swimming activities. At the same time, it is necessary to increase training in emergency skills for rescue staff and accompanying teachers and consider installing surveillance cameras at the swimming pool to promptly detect incidents.
Doctor Phuong emphasized that the golden time for drowning emergency care is very short. Heart failure, respiratory arrest after 4 minutes has begun to cause brain damage; after 10 minutes, the risk of death or leaving irreversible sequelae is very high. When meeting a drowning child, prioritize cardiac arrest and suffocation on the spot. Drinkling water is not worth saving lives but also takes time.
