A Nebraska news anchor’s family anxiety for family health has forced him to make a heartfelt plea to parents to learn how to perform CPR on their babies and children.
Bill Schammert, the evening news anchor for the CBS subsidiary KOLN-TV in Lincoln, Neb., Choked during his broadcast last night after returning to the newsstand after his newborn son’s hospitalization. While conveying an emotional Schammert to viewers, his younger son, 13-day-old Cameron, looked unwell on January 5 and later turned purple and ‘sighed for air’ when his father loaded him into his car seat. Although Schammert and his wife, Kym, received CPR training as part of their prenatal classes a few months before the birth of their firstborn son, Theo, a few months before the birth of their firstborn son, Theo, he says. Yahoo Life that he went into panic mode while he and Kym frantically called 911. for help.
“Especially if it’s your own child – you’re panicking and confused and do not know what to do,” says Schammert.
Fortunately, a 911 freight forwarder – who regarded Schammert as a ‘hero’ in his now viral broadcast, could ‘let us go through everything’ while he and Kym performed CPR on their son. She also sent paramedics there, who shortly after Cameron started crying, a sign that the baby was breathing again. Cameron spent the next 36 hours in the hospital, where a chest X-ray revealed an unknown viral infection in his lungs.
‘[Doctors] believes he has mucus clogging his airway, and at 13 days old he did not know how to expel, so he stopped breathing, ‘says Schammert, adding that Cameron is currently’ doing well ‘. He is currently a healthy, normal baby boy. ‘
Please forgive the tears and watch 🙏
Last Tuesday we were surrounded by heroes who helped save our son’s life. My goal is to ensure that as many parents as possible know the importance of CPR and babies. pic.twitter.com/EGNcTuGkz5
– Bill Schammert (@BillSchammert) 12 January 2021
While the Schammerts were able to avoid a tragic loss, the newsman said the incident highlighted the importance of learning CPR and baby and children. He and Kym received their own refresher course last week while in hospital at Cameron’s. They watched videos and talked to a nurse about what to do in case of a new scare.
‘I want to encourage everyone – every parent, grandparent, guardian – if they have not taken a CPR class, to do so, and if they have taken one, and it is more than a year, do not take it. long to brush, ”he tells Yahoo Life.
He adds that he and his wife plan to meet the dispatcher who helped them save Cameron’s life.
“911 operators are really the first line of defense,” he says. “They are our first responders, and they are so undervalued, and it should not be.”
He also flips through the comments that flowed in from his broadcast, many from other parents who shared their own frightening experiences.
“The comments, the messages and the outpouring of support go beyond what we could ever imagine, and I read each of them on Facebook and on Twitter,” he says. ‘If you go through something like this with your own child, it can feel isolating and as if no one understands what you’re going through, while letting me know the exact opposite. There are so many people who know exactly what we are going through, and people who may have lost their child, who are just as gracious as ours, who tell their stories of survival and the impact CPR has had on their lives, and that’s overwhelming.
‘The whole point of this is to let people know: this little thing, CPR, the ten-minute class you get at work once a year, or the thing you learn 30 minutes before you have a baby, it does not brush. down, because you never know when you’re going to have to know it, and it can truly – we’re a proof – save lives. ”
Dr. David Markenson, Chief Medical Officer of the American Red Cross Training Services, agrees that it is essential for caregivers to know how to apply first aid and perform CPR, saying: ‘In a tragic situation, you may have a save lives if you are trained. ”
It is also important that the training should be specific to babies and children, he adds.
“Because the body of children and the way they work – especially babies – differ from adults, you need to know how to help them, and the technique for CPR and some first aid steps are very different for a baby and a child. , “he tells Yahoo Life. So it is good to know what to do for adults, but for children and babies you need to have special training in their CPR and their first aid.
‘Some of the differences that are important are where you put your hands on your chest [to do CPR] if a child does not breathe and does not respond, ‘Markenson explains. ‘In a baby it’s between the nipple line and you want to push hard and fast, but the depth of the press is less in a baby than in adults, about one and a half centimeters. If you are not trained, it is best to press between the nipple line about one and a half inches as fast as possible, up and down, up and down. ‘
While emphasizing that ‘the best thing to do is to be trained’, appealing to ‘the three Cs’ can also be life-saving.
“We tell people to remember three things in an emergency, and it’s simple to remember. The three C’s: check, call, care, ”he explains. “Look and discover what’s going on. Call 911 next and then take care if you are trained. All steps are important and easy to remember, but we really emphasize calling 911 well in advance … that sender will not only get help for you, but you can also talk on the phone about what you need to do. ‘
He also recommends using the speakerphone feature to keep your hands free of compressions while a distributor guides you through the process; the Red Cross’ first aid app, he says, will give instructions and connect users to a 911 transmitter via speaker. Markenson emphasizes the value of training in personal, practical classes – which he ensures are safe and “perfectly clean” during the pandemic thanks to social distance and the use of one-on-one equipment – but online training is also available through the American Red Cross.
“Although it is a rare occurrence to have to do CPR or first aid for a baby or a child, it can occur,” he says. ‘And if you do not know what to do, the outcome can of course be awful … In the heat of an emergency, the fear of not knowing what to do is the biggest obstacle. The training allows you to do something. ”
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