What do I do in case of a respiratory arrest?
The vital functions of the body are composed of breathing, circulation and consciousness. Every failure of one of the systems leads after a short time to problems with the other systems. Without oxygen, irreversible brain damage occurs after about five minutes.
If a baby or toddler suffers a respiratory arrest, the first thing to do is to activate the emergency call. The next step is to position the child in the so-called sniffing position. This means that the head is slightly overstretched and stabilized under the shoulders, for example with a towel.Complete overstretching as with adults is not necessary.
Now the caregiver must give the baby five initial breaths, as this can stimulate breathing again depending on the cause. For this purpose, the helper includes mouth and nose under his mouth and breathes into the baby’s body. The lung volume of a small baby is only about 20ml, i.e. as much as a pin, and should therefore not be ventilated with the complete exhalation of the adult helper. After initial ventilation, the rescuer should start with the classic 30 to 2 rhythm of cardiopulmonary resuscitation, since a respiratory arrest after a short time also leads to cardiac arrest. These measures are acutely life-saving and significantly increase the baby’s chances.
What do I do in case of cardiac arrest?
The heart is the motor of our circulation and pumps blood through our body for a lifetime. Without this motor our body and with it the brain does not get enough oxygen. Babies rarely have a cardiac arrest before the respiratory arrest because they do not yet have risk factors for infarcts.
An exception are children with congenital heart defects. In most babies, cardiac arrest is secondary to the cessation of breathing. In the case of respiratory arrest and circulatory arrest, every minute counts because the brain takes damage after about five minutes.
After the initial respiration described above, cardiac massage must be started. The child must lie on a firm surface or on his own forearm. For babies, the caregiver can place both thumbs or forefingers and middle fingers on the sternum at nipple level and push the chest in about a third of the way.
For infants, one hand can be used. The frequency should be between 100 and 120 presses per minute. Always after 30 presses the baby must be ventilated twice again.
In between pressing in, make sure that the chest is completely relieved. These measures are continued until a rescue worker gives the instruction to stop, so that he can continue the work. Cardiopulmonary resuscitation should be trained in regular first aid courses.