Never too young to learn CPR
24 October 2013
Primary school students as young as 12 are learning the basics of cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) through a program being rolled out in Loxton and Waikerie.
CPR4Kids is a joint initiative of the District Council of Loxton Waikerie and the Flinders University Rural Clinical School Renmark.
Flinders’ clinical simulation educator Leanne Rogers says the earlier children learn these lifesaving skills, the better.
“Physically a 12 to 13 year old is able to compress a third of the chest which is the recommend depth and also at 100 (compresses) a minute,” she said.
“Mentally, children actually don’t have the fear that adults often do and there have been documented cases where children have been able to save a life just by doing CPR that they’ve seen on TV.
“We teach with the reasoning, do something, do anything … it’s about giving them confidence that they are able to do CPR.
“Any attempt at resuscitation is better than no attempt.”
The workshops include videos and the use of mannequins to demonstrate a range of scenarios in which CPR could need to be administered.
Learning the basics
Loxton Lutheran School year seven student Lachlan says he would administer CPR if he had to, but would find it a little daunting.
“First of all I would call the ambulance and then I would attempt to do CPR if they were in a critical state and wait for the ambulance and hope they would come,” he said.
“It’s very important (to know CPR) because most of the kids in our class have a boat license so if they’re out in the boat with their friends and someone fell out the boat and got heaps of water they’d need to know how to do it.”
Fellow year seven student Paislee says it’s vital for young people to be prepared.
“If someone passes out on the sporting field or if you are at home alone with your Dad and he passes out you’d have to know what to do and then you’d call the ambulance,” she said.
“If you don’t know how to do it then someone could die.”
