Drowning and Child CPR – What’s Happening?

Drowning ranks amongst the top three causes of death by unintentional injury in most countries, including Singapore. From 2011 to 2015, 1-2 paediatric drownings were seen per year in KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital, and 64% of them happened in private pools.

According to Dr Gene Ong from the KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital at the National Life Saving Day 2020 Symposium, organised by the Singapore Heart Foundation, findings from the hospital on submersion injury surveillance included:

• An upward trend of submersion incidents involving children where 1 in 10 cases led to drowning death
• Highest occurrence of submersion incidents involving children in condominium pools; 50% of drowning deaths occurred during pool parties
• If a child sustains a submersion injury during a pool party, the child is eight times more likely to die from drowning
• 40% of the submersion incidents occurred from Friday to Sunday, between 4pm – 8pm

In drowning, severe brain damage usually occurs within a few minutes of complete submersion when the brain is deprived of oxygen and it can happen in as little as 5cm of water.

Submersion injuries can be due to lack of close supervision, lack of swimming ability, lack of barriers, medical disorders, lack of immediate CPR.

Dr Gene emphasised that the greatest morbidity and mortality associated with non-fatal drowning is due to hypoxia, specifically cerebral hypoxia and he sees a need to correct this as the greatest priority in the resuscitation process.

Watch his presentation here:

His presentation slides are also available for download.