According to the World Health Organization (WHO), drowning has claimed the lives of more than 2.5 million people worldwide in the past decade. An estimated 236,000 people die from drowning each year. It is one of the leading causes of death in children aged 5 to 14.
In Vietnam, according to statistics from the Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs, drowning is the leading cause of death in children aged 1-4 and the third leading cause of death due to unintentional injuries in children and adolescents aged 5-19. Currently, nearly 2,000 children under 16 years old die from drowning each year. This is truly a heartbreaking number, a burden on children's safety and a detriment to the happiness of many families.
For example, in just the last few days of April, the National Children's Hospital received 3 drowning patients, in critical condition. The first case was a boy named HT (2 years old, in Hanoi). While his mother was busy working, T. ran to a neighbor's house to play and unfortunately fell into a 1.2m deep Koi pond with no surrounding fence.
According to the camera, after about 8 minutes of falling into the fish tank, the child was discovered and brought to shore in a state of cyanosis, cardiac arrest, and respiratory arrest. Immediately, the family called for help and medical staff from a nearby medical station came to provide first aid on the spot. After 10 minutes, baby T had a heartbeat again and was taken to the district hospital 5km away. At this time, the child had a heartbeat and breathing but was not conscious, lethargic. Doctors performed initial first aid, intubated to control the airway and transferred the child to the National Children's Hospital in a coma after cardiac arrest.
The next two cases received by the National Children's Hospital are a girl named NK (12 years old, in Hanoi) and a boy named AT (11 years old, in Son La). The circumstances of the accident of the two children are quite similar. Through medical history, the family said that while the child was bathing in a pond or stream with friends, he drowned. The child was brought to shore by people around him in a state of cardiac arrest and respiratory arrest and was given emergency cardiopulmonary resuscitation...
During the April 30-May 1 holiday, many tragic drowning accidents involving children occurred in some localities. Typically, in Ha Nam, there were two drowning incidents that killed four teenagers in Liem Tuyen commune, Phu Ly city and Thanh Son commune, Kim Bang district; three students drowned in Trung Hoa commune, Minh Hoa district, Quang Binh province; two children died while swimming in the river at the foot of Hiep Thanh bridge, Phuong Nam ward, Uong Bi city, Quang Ninh province...
At the Central Children's Hospital, in recent years, hundreds of seriously ill and critical children have been admitted due to this accident.
According to experts, drowning often occurs in the summer months due to hot weather. At the same time, children are on summer vacation, many families take their children swimming in swimming pools, go on beach trips; children in rural areas often have the habit of bathing in rivers, streams, ponds and lakes with friends... so most drowning accidents occur in rural areas.
Analysis shows that there are many causes of drowning accidents in children, but most of them are due to the hyperactivity of young children, the negligence, subjectivity, and carelessness of parents, not closely supervising children or lack of caretakers, allowing children to roam freely. In addition, the living environment in the community and family is not safe, the system of rivers, streams, and lakes everywhere is also an unsafe risk for young children.
On the other hand, the awareness of the community, especially parents, about preventing and fighting child drowning is still limited. Facilities, equipment, swimming instructors, and swimming safety skills in localities are still lacking. Drowning prevention skills are still very lacking, only more than 30% of children know how to swim. In many cases, children invite each other to go swimming, bathe in ponds, rivers, due to lack of drowning rescue skills, so when a child drowns, they immediately jump in to save them while the drowning rescue skill is to be indirect or shout...
Reality shows that equipping children with skills to prevent drowning accidents, especially students in rural areas with difficult economic conditions, has not received due attention. Parents are often busy making a living and do not have enough time to care for and supervise their children. On the other hand, children's active and curious nature, combined with their lack of understanding of danger, often makes them not realize the level of risk of playing near water.
Furthermore, despite the many warnings from professional agencies and the media, there is an alarming reality that despite the extensive communication from the health sector at all levels for many years, many people still do not know the correct first aid skills when approaching and handling a drowning child. The situation of giving first aid incorrectly by turning the victim upside down still occurs...
Therefore, to promptly prevent and minimize drowning and provide emergency aid to drowning children, the whole family and community need to join hands. That is, in addition to strengthening the management of children and students, training and fostering basic skills, such as: Caregivers always pay attention, manage and supervise children at all times and places; Education of knowledge and skills (for children from grade 1) to prevent drowning and teach children to swim safely; Education and guidance for older children to recognize dangerous places with high risk of drowning, not to bathe or play in dangerous water areas, not to joke around while swimming; indirect ways to rescue drowning to ensure personal safety; ... It is necessary to propagate and popularize proper first aid measures for drowning to the people; organize basic first aid training courses for the community, move towards changing practices, avoiding incorrect actions when giving emergency aid ....
It can be said that drowning accidents in children are a pressing issue in the community, affecting the psychology of each family and more seriously, the survival and development of children. Therefore, in order for children to have a safe and healthy living environment, there needs to be a specific and practical action plan, the joint responsibility of the entire community. And above all, the attention and supervision from each family is the most important thing to avoid the unfortunate and painful consequences caused by drowning.
Source
Comment (0)