Preparing Children for Emergencies
Mar 10, 2009 Emergency
Intense circumstances create high amounts of stress, not only for adults, but children also. Whether it is a fire, flood or earthquake, children need to know what to do and how to do it in order to minimize stress and anxiety. Have you heard stories on the news about a child who saves a family by staying calm, calling 911, and following directions? Being prepared to help in an emergency saves lives. What makes it possible for a child in a high stress situation to be ready to help?
Establish and Practice Home Emergency Plans
Everyone in the family needs to be aware of potential disasters and what to do if they occur. Start family emergency planning with a brainstorming session. (Depending on the age of your children you may need to explain that brainstorming is sharing whatever comes to mind. No idea is bad and no one should be laughed at for their contributions.) After brainstorming pull out the most effective ideas and make a family written plan and post it in a public place. Put plans into action by rehearsing drills. After each trial, evaluate performance to make the plan run more smoothly. Planning in such a way allows children to maintain control of their responses and actions, even when emergencies are out of their control. Planning increases their ability to respond calmly in an emergency.
Enroll Youth in Programs
Community youth programs teach important life skills. These programs prepare children by enlarging upon the lessons from home and school. Organizations such as The American Red Cross, Boy Scouts of America, Girls Scouts of U.S.A, and R.A.D. Kids promote emergency preparedness and skills, and often assist families by offering good exercises to do at home.
First Aid Classes
Teach, review, and practice basic first aid with children. Talk about more complicated first aid procedures, even if they are not physically capable of doing them. Although children may not be able to perform procedures such as CPR, clearing a person’s airway, or giving mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, it is beneficial for them to know what it is in case they ever witness it. Traumatic events cause more fear and tension if they are completely new or unfamiliar.
Community Service
Create a sense of belonging, responsibility, and service for your family by participating in city wide clean-ups or other service projects. Involvement teaches children that many hands make light work and that we all need to help each other to get a job done. If there ever is a need for community work during an emergency children will know how to help and work together.
Teach Health and Fitness
Having a strong mind and a healthy body aids a person in a disaster. Being able to react and withstand challenges is an important component of physical readiness. Youth can help with tasks such as sandbagging, shoveling, and cleaning if they have been physically active and living a healthy lifestyle.
Laughter is the Best Medicine
Humor reduces stress and anxiety by releasing feel-good hormones in the brain, promoting positive thinking and emotion. Make humor apart of everyday life. Encourage good jokes and optimism. Practice making tense situations lighter with laughter. Children will be reassured and relaxed during the stress that is associated with emergency if they can have the healthy outlet of laughter.
Being prepared for possible emergencies increases confidence, knowledge and skill in children of all ages. Because emergencies can cause high stress and have a negative impact and effect on people’s lives, especially children, it is important to take the necessary steps to prepare them for such situations. Also remember that children react to the emotions of those around them and can sense when there is fear, stress or anxiety. The best way to help a child in an emergency is to be prepared to deal with the situation yourself.
Tags: Children, Emergencies, Preparing
Are your Children Safe at School While you are Working?
Mar 7, 2009 Emergency
Working as a firefighter/paramedic in Southern California for nearly 25 years, I have had my share of medical emergencies involving children at school. One call in particular stands out in my mind and later drove me to leave the fire service and start my own company called EmergiLink.
It was a beautiful sunny California day and I was on-duty assigned to the Rescue Ambulance (RA). The call came in and as I suited up, slid the fire-pole and started up the RA, my nerves began to play on me a bit as I thought of my own three children who were also at school nearly 40 miles away.
The call came in as an unconscious child on the playground at one of the local elementary schools a few miles away. We arrived in about 4 minutes from the time we received the call and were flagged right on to the playground. We parked the RA a few feet away from our victim.
Confusion took over as none of the school personnel seemed to have any information about the child or what he was doing prior to his state of unconsciousness. We have a pneumonic we use called A-E-I-O-U-T-I-P-S that helps us run through the possible scenarios for an unconscious victim (Eg. A=Alcohol, E=Epilepsy, etc.)
It wasn’t until well into the assessment of our patient did we actually obtain any useable information on our patient. We had his name, address and parental contact info. We were on our way to the hospital in about 18 minutes and the child’s parents weren’t contacted until we almost arrived at the hospital.
Not knowing whether the child fell or had a significant medical condition we provided cervical-spine-immobilization, started an IV and placed him on the heart monitor. In route to the hospital, we noticed the child’s heart rate decreased along with irregular breathing patterns. The patient also began “posturing” which is an indication of serious brain injury.
Upon arrival in the Emergency Department (ED), the staff quickly asked us what happened. We didn’t know. They asked about his medical history. We knew nothing. They asked when the parents were going to arrive. We didn’t know that answer as well.
The ED Trauma Team began assessing the child and found a slight bump at the base of his skull. They ordered a CT scan…it showed a subdural hematoma (bleeding on the brain) and the child was rushed to ICU where he was awaiting surgery.
The parents finally arrived and were able to relate the child’s medical history and medications…he took Dilantin for a seizure condition. Putting it all together, the ED staff figured he had been out playing on the playground, had a seizure and fell off of something, hitting the back of his head. He never exhibited the typical signs and symptoms of having had a seizure in the field.
From the time we received the call until he actually went to surgery was almost three hours. Three days later in the hospital, the child died of complications relating to the bleeding in his head.
I thought if we had known his medical history, his medications, his past hospitalizations and had his parents contact information on hand during the emergency, we and the ED staff may have been able to shave off as much as an hour from the time it took to get him into surgery. I hold on to the belief…he may have survived if we had this information when we needed it most.
So years later, I carry around the souls of as many as 20,000 patients I tried to make a difference with. Some I lost, that I know to this day, may still be alive if we knew something about them when we arrived to take care of their medical emergency.
So now my mission in life is to try and save lives on a global scale with EmergiLink. For me and the company, it is all about giving 1st responders an Informed Response. We do this by providing a means where citizens in any given community can link their medical history and contact information with their emergency responders ahead of time. Parents fill out the secure online application, add family members, add photos of all members and later attach two of their fingerprints to their profiles. 1st Responders can respond to a member’s medical emergency and by scanning one of their fingerprints, they can find out all they need to know to provide the best possible treatment, in the shortest amount of time, literally getting the patient to the hospital in half the time. Time and Information will give patients the best chance of survival.
It’s time for all of us to be proactive. No ones going to make you take responsibility for your own care; you will have to decide if that’s important to you or not. But what about your children? Are they going to have the best chance for survival today or are you going to hold on to the belief nothing can happen to them while they are safe at school.
EmergiLink is your child’s advocate when you can’t be there…Life at their fingertips.