Childhood illness

Children’s Emergency Treatment & Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation（CPR）

CPR is an emergency procedure on a person who stops breathing and whose heart has stopped beating. If a child stops breathing and the heart stops beating, the most important thing to save the life is to start CPR immediately.

1. Check for Responsiveness…Shout and tap the child to see if there is response. For infants, if there is no response to your shouts, tap the infant’s plantar with fingers. If the child is still unresponsive and lost consciousness, the back of the tongue may fall back over the throat and block the airway, therefore it is very important to help keep the airway open when a child lost consciousness.
2. Call for help・Call ambulance…If there is no response for responsiveness check, perform 2 minutes of CPR before calling 119 (the sooner CPR is started, the more possible to save the life).
3. Start CPR
   1. Open the Airway …Push down on the forehead with one hand, and lift up the chin with 1 or 2 finger of the other hand（the head-tilt / chin-lift method）. Check for breathing, look for chest movement, listen for breaths, and feel for breaths on your cheek for 10 seconds. If the child is not breathing, start artificial respiration. （If the child is breathing, side-lying the body）
   2. Artificial Respiration…Cover the infant’s mouth and nose with your mouth, give 2 breaths (if your mouth is not big enough to cover both mouth and nose of the infant, pinch the mouth and give breaths through the nose). The amount of air that you give the infant should cause a discernible rise of the chest, about one mouthful air of yours. Give 2 breaths, each breath should be 1 second long (Do not need deep breath but normal breath). 　 No need to check for signs of circulation, start chest compressions immediately after giving 2 breaths.
   3. Chest Compressions…For the infant, use 2 fingers to press the center of the chest between the nipples line, taking care to avoid the bottom of breastbone (xiphoid). Press down approximately 1/2 to 1/3 the depth of the chest at the rate of 100 per minute. ※Press left-of-center as heart is located in the left side of the chest. Give 2 breaths after each 30 compressions. If the child does not have the signs of circulation, repeat with 2 breaths and 30 compressions until a rescue team arrives.

1. Check for Responsiveness…First, shout the child, if there is no response, tap the child on the top of collarbone or the shoulder. If the child is unresponsive and lost consciousness, the back of the tongue may fall back over the throat and block the airway, therefore it is very important to help keep the airway open when a child lost consciousness.
2. Call for help・Call ambulance…If there is no response for responsiveness check, perform 2 minutes of CPR before calling 119 (the sooner CPR is started, the more possible to save the life).
3. Start CPR
   1. Open the Airway …Place one hand on the forehead to push it down, and lift up the chin with the fingers of the other hand. Check for breathing, look for chest movement, listen for breaths, and feel for breaths on your cheek for 10 seconds. If the child is not breathing, start artificial respiration.
   2. Artificial Respiration…Pinch the child’s nose and cover the mouth with your mouth, and give 2 breaths. The amount of air that you give the child should cause a discernible rise of the chest and may depend on how big the child is. Give 2 breaths, each breath should be 1 second long (Do not need deep breath but normal breath). No need to check for the signs of circulation, start chest compressions immediately after giving 2 breaths.
   3. Chest Compressions…Put the heel of one hand on the breastbone right between the nipples. Do not press either the bottom of breastbone (xiphoid) or ribs. Lock your elbow and push straight down. Press the breastbone approximately 1/3 the depth of the chest at the rate of 100 per minute. Use two hands for big children. Put the heel of one hand on the breastbone and other hand on the top. ⇒ Perform 30 chest compressions and give 2 breaths (at least 5 repeated cycles)
   4. ＡＥＤ…When using an AED, give 1 AED shock and start CPR immediately for 2 minutes. The heart rhythm will be analyzed every 2 minutes.

If you determine that the victim is unconscious, isn't breathing, and has no pulse, start CPR immediately. Without doing CPR but just to bring the victim to hospital or just wait rescue team arrival, chances of survival drop dramatically. The 5・6 minutes before rescue team arrival is the critical time to save the victim.