As a I child I had a beautiful patchwork quilt on my bed, it had been hand stitched with love, but not by my mother, and it wasn't made for me. I had inherited it, and along with the quilt, I inherited the story that went with it.
The quilt belonged to a little boy named Rowan, and it was lovingly hand stitched by him by his mother Donna, a close friend of my parents. Before I was born Donna and her son were travelling Europe and they were housesitting somewhere over there. The house they were staying at had a pool and they were playing outside with a ball. When Donna heard the phone ringing she told Rowan it was time to come in and they headed up the path, Donna in front and Rowan trailing behind. When she reached the house, Donna turned around- only to find out that Rowan wasn't behind her. Panicking, she raced back down the path, back towards the pool... when she saw him, floating face down in the pool, with his ball.
Rowan didn't survive, and I've known his story for as long as I can remember. I've never seen a photo of him and I only have my imagination of what he looked like and what exactly happened that day but it has kept me aware my whole life. Now, as a mother of three I have always been hyper aware (boarding on paranoia sometimes) about water and how easily a baby or child can drown.
Did you know a baby or toddler can drown in just 6cm of water? Did you know that babies drown in mop buckets, dog water bowls, eskies with melted ice in them? We often think about drowning in terms of baths or pools but that's not always the case.
As parents it's imperative that we have basic first aid and CPR training- it's the difference between life and death in some cases. Did you know that for every minute CPR isn't performed it reduces the patient's chance of survival by 10%?
With this in mind I went along to the Kidzaid Vital Care course on the weekend for a refresher course as it's been 15 years since my last paediatric first aid course. The course is around 2 hours long and covers a range of scenarios and circumstances you might find yourself in. Including:
- Baby and child CPR
- Dealing with infant and toddler choking
- What to do in the case of burns
- Managing febrile convulsions
- Drowning
We had a lot of hands on experience with paediatric mannequins who represented babies up to 12 months and children from 1 yr- 8 yrs old. A number of scenarios were presented to us and then the instructor (a paediatric nurse) explained the steps and then encouraged us to perform them on the mannequins as well.
The course was well presented and not too complex- they didn't confuse us with too much information and what was explained to us was done clearly and concisely.
For those of you parents who are yet to take a first aid course- please do. It could save the life of your child...or someone else's. I may have never met Rowan, but I've also never forgotten him.
Kidzaid runs paediatric first aid courses in Sydney and Melbourne and are now launching their program in Queensland. You can book a private course for a group or go along to their public courses.
To find out more visit www.kidzaid.com.au
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