So, this happened Monday afternoon at a metro Atlanta school. It's been all over the news and I saw lots of nasty comments on Facebook last night about how the teachers and parapros must have been "gossiping" or "on their phones" and neglecting the students for this child to have been hanging on the monkey bars long enough to have asphyxiated.
There are minimal details about how long she was hanging there and how she actually got in the position (or what position she was actually found in). Apparently, the staff performed CPR on the student prior to EMS' arrival. I read every article I could find. If more details come out I will be sure to update.
There is a school nurse listed on the school website but there are no details as to whether he/she was present at the time or if this nurse is only responsible for this one school or many. The only nurse I could find with the same last name on the state BON is an LPN. Not that it matters...either you know CPR or you don't. My heart goes out to all of the faculty and staff at this school and to the family of this sweet girl.
I can't imagine what events had to transpire for this to happen.
Anyway, I found out about this last night (Wednesday) and was heartbroken...but prior to that I'd seen this video released by CHOA-Children's Healthcare of Atlanta.
Being a volleyball mom AND the school nurse in charge of all of our campus AEDs, this brought me to tears immediately. I spend hours every week, year round, watching volleyball matches. And I'll likely be doing that for years. This brings chills down my spine.
Do you train your staff on AEDs? Do you train your athletic coaches specifically how to use these or rely on the fact that AEDs are basically user friendly for anyone on the street to be able to use?
Do you train your staff (particularly your athletic staff) to know CPR?
My coaches are all "trained" but they panic about every little thing (they cannot even seem to intervene on a nosebleed). I just hope they could compose themselves enough to grab the AED and start compressions.
My clinic is very far away from the gym. My fear is always that they will call me to come quickly (with no info of course) and by the time I get there....
I have had kids fracture something early in the morning and they have done nothing until my arrival on campus.
My coaches are all "trained" but they panic about every little thing (they cannot even seem to intervene on a nosebleed). I just hope they could compose themselves enough to grab the AED and start compressions.
My clinic is very far away from the gym. My fear is always that they will call me to come quickly (with no info of course) and by the time I get there....
I have had kids fracture something early in the morning and they have done nothing until my arrival on campus.
NOTE: Bolding is mine.
I have always wondered how realistic is 'CPR certification' for lay-persons when they only attend a few-hour class and then demonstrate their technique one time just in order to obtain that little card.
While I'll admit that SOME training is better than NO training at all, I'm curious how many stander-by people might also be 'CPR certified' and just did not step-up to assist. For whatever reason! And there are many. How could this be measured? It's not like you could query every nearby person re a cert.
I taught ARC Community CPR and I heard attendees whisper that "they only took the course IN CASE for their families. They'd NEVER help anyone on the street!" Why not? I just think something more than just a 'yearly cert' or 'training' needs to be done so community responders would be more CPR-ready and more CPR-friendly.
I'm glad the 'chest compressions only' approach is now the community norm but more emphasis is needed as well as stressing 'good samaritan'-ism. And I'd bet those junior & senior high school students would be more readily open to performing CPR than the adults.
I don't know if there'd be any way to mandate, say, quarterly CPR refresher training for school staff, but there needs to be some impetus to make them more CPR-amenable.
Thank you for sharing this and I'm glad there was a positive outcome. I am now motivated to find out if the staff at my children's school are trained. If they aren't, I am going to push for it. I am also going to look into what I have to do to become a certified trainer/educator. While AEDs are made with easy to understand instructions, I think most people are terrified that they will do more harm than good if they were to use them. There is no reason that everyone should not have a basic understanding and comfort level with using an AED and I hope to improve that understanding.
I agree. My coach who is first aid and CPR trained panics when he sees a bump, bruise or drop of blood. Last year, a student hurt his leg and fell in the gym. The coach just stood there stunned, and told kids to get me. He also stood there (not even near the child) wide eyed as I helped the child up. I don't get it. If you want to work with children in a PE setting, you should be able to handle minor emergencies.
I think a lot of our staff is just paranoid. they could be very capable, but they fear doing the wrong thing, and not having the right outcome. To the point where they will defer to me for really silly things that could be handled easily.
SchoolNurseTXstyle
566 Posts
My coaches are all "trained" but they panic about every little thing (they cannot even seem to intervene on a nosebleed). I just hope they could compose themselves enough to grab the AED and start compressions.
My clinic is very far away from the gym. My fear is always that they will call me to come quickly (with no info of course) and by the time I get there....
I have had kids fracture something early in the morning and they have done nothing until my arrival on campus.