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Affiliation
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(c)International Lifesaving Federation, Belgium; (d)International Drowning Research Alliance, Brazil; (g)Department of Anaesthesiology, The University of Auckland, New Zealand. Electronic address: jweb018@aucklanduni.ac.nz. |
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Abstract
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International data severely underestimates actual drowning numbers. Almost all victims are able to help themselves or are rescued in time. This study aims to report the occurrence of Drowning Chain of Survival actions and resuscitations needed in a fully operational lifeguard service.
METHODOLOGY: Data was collected from Dec-2009 to Mar-2015 by lifeguards at a 6km-long beach in Brazil. The Drowning Chain of Survival links were summarized into 3 main action-response sections: Prevention; rescue; and provide care. Rescues were classified by severity.
RESULTS: Lifeguards reported 1,565,699 actions during the study period. Preventative actions comprised 1,563,300(99.8%) and 2,044 (0.1%) involved recognizing a person in stress/distress and rescuing them. Of those requiring rescue, 355(0.02%) needed medical assistance due to respiratory symptoms, isolated respiratory arrest, or cardiopulmonary arrest. Those cases were classified by severity as: Grade 1 = 234(65.9%), grade 2 = 78(22%), grade 3 = 22(6.2%), grade 4 = 7(2%), grade 5 = 4(1.1%), and Grade 6 = 10(2.8%). From all 2,044 rescues, 14(0.7%) were grade 5 and 6 and needed respiratory or cardiorespiratory resuscitation. An estimative incidence of 1 rescue for 4,227 peoples, 1 drowning for 24,338 and 1 CPR done to 617,142 for each day at a guarded beach was showed. The prevalent misconception that majority of drowning require resuscitation is perpetuated by the media and publishers. We are only just seeing the tip of the iceberg and urgently need to look at the problem in its entirety. Considering all the intervention undertaken by lifeguards in a fully operational system, the incidence of resuscitation being performed is only one in every 112,000 lifeguarding actions (0.0009%).
Copyright © 2018. Published by Elsevier B.V.
Language: en |