Better to wait for ambulance, parents warned

[aussiephil]

Better to wait for ambulance, parents warned

A LEADING trauma expert is urging parents to wait for paramedics to take critically injured children to hospital, following the death of a three-year-old boy from a 15m fall in Sydney's south.

The youngster was playing in a bedroom on the third floor of an apartment block in Warialda St, Kogarah when he fell from a window at about 7pm (AEDT) yesterday.

His family rushed him to St George Hospital, where he later died.

Professor Danny Cass, head of trauma at The Children's Hospital at Westmead, said about 20 children were being admitted to the hospital every year for similar falls.

Most of these were during spring and summer months.

There have been at least three deaths in the past few years and other children falling out of windows have suffered serious head injuries, fractures and damage to internal organs such as the liver and spleen, Prof Cass said.

"We've been worried about this for 10 years now," he said.

High-density living and poor building design were contributing factors, he said.

"We feel this is an increasing problem with the urbanisation of our living conditions," he said.

"It's been a big oversight by the Government and the whole community to really not understand the potential risk here.

"There's been a serious lapse of forward planning."

Rather than wait for the Government to pass legislation for better building design, Prof Cass urged parents to ensure windows accessible to children could not be opened by more than 10cm.

A visit to a hardware store, he said, could enable parents to alter windows themselves at a cost of $10.

"So for the vertical ones, that's a Black and Decker and two drills and coach screws, and for the aluminium ones, a rod that just sits in the gutter or two little aluminium screws that screw down," he said.

If a child does fall from a window, Prof Cass urged parents to phone 000 and have a paramedic transport the child to hospital.

"We've had increasing numbers of occasions where parents have grabbed the child and taken them to the nearest hospital, which may not have children's facilities," he said.

"This then necessitates a complex transfer to the children's hospital."

NSW Ambulance paramedic Penelope Little said it was important for parents to realise that ambulance staff could treat patient immediately upon arrival.

"Certainly what we recommend is for the paramedics to arrive because that treatment can be done straight away," she said.

"You should remain on the phone to 000 so the ambulance operator can give you advice.

"They can remain with you on the telephone and tell you what to do."

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Edited October 19, 2009 by aussiephil

[HERBIE1]

Interesting, and seems like a no-brainer, especially after a 15 meter fall, but around here, the converse is the problem. In this area, getting people to call 911- the emergency number here- is NOT an issue. Stubbed toes, paper cuts, tight shoes- nobody around here is shy about activating EMS for ANYTHING.

[Kaisu]

You would think that C-spine precautions or at least the need for them would be a fairly straight-forward and easy thing to educate the general public about. I can't tell you the number of times that well-meaning by-standers have done crazy stuff - like the unrestrained driver in a head on collision, caught by the legs under the crushed dash with half her body hanging out of the car, dragged for a hundred or so feet, still alive, with a huge teddy bear under her head, cause by-standers wanted to give her a pillow.

Or roll over crash victims dragged out of the vehicle because bystanders wanted to help.

Pretty difficult for parents of a small child to restrain the impulse to scoop the kid up and run.

[HERBIE1]

You would think that C-spine precautions or at least the need for them would be a fairly straight-forward and easy thing to educate the general public about. I can't tell you the number of times that well-meaning by-standers have done crazy stuff - like the unrestrained driver in a head on collision, caught by the legs under the crushed dash with half her body hanging out of the car, dragged for a hundred or so feet, still alive, with a huge teddy bear under her head, cause by-standers wanted to give her a pillow.

Or roll over crash victims dragged out of the vehicle because bystanders wanted to help.

Pretty difficult for parents of a small child to restrain the impulse to scoop the kid up and run.

Kids are the toughest issue for even trained providers.