When Australia has a long weekend, usually it’s the roads we’re all warned to watch but this Labour Day weekend we saw a new dangerous trend, children neally drowning while they were under adult supervision.
The tragedy began at 9:20am on Sunday when paramedics responded to a frantic call regarding a 10 year old boy being found face down in the swimming pool of the Cedar Lake Country Resort. Paramedics worked on the boy for over 20 minutes until they got a heartbeat and transfered him to hospital where he remains in an induced coma and critical condition.
A few hours later a call was made from a home in Nerang where a father had pulled out his sons 7 year old friend from the bottom of the pool after he fell off his boogie board. The father commenced CPR for ten minutes until the paramedics arrived and the boy made a full recovery.
Then came the reports that just after 3:30pm a two year old boy was plucked from the lagoon at Currumbin Beach from lifesavers who commenced CPR and revived him.
These horrific events are a timely reminder for parents that children must be supervised at all times. Two of these incidents happened in fenced swimming pools with adult supervision. So what can we as parents and a community learn from this:
- CPR saves lives.
- Adult supervision is essential – that means put your phone down and watch your kids.
- Children can still drown while using flotation devices.
- Even children who are strong swimmers can still get in trouble.
At First Aid Accident Emergency we offer fully comprehensive First Aid courses in addition to refresher courses for those parents who are wanting to brush up on their first aid and CPR skills. If you would like any information about our Gold Coast First Aid courses, give our head office a call.
