Pediatric Resuscitation

The Message is Resonating
December 3, 2021

January 2022 will be 12 years since the founding of Handtevy, inspired after a 10-fold medication error I had made, yet wasn’t aware of at the time.

Data from the AHA and the Pediatric Advanced Life Support (PALS) guidelines consistently report neurologic intact survival from pediatric cardiac arrest to be 3% for infants and 10% for children.

A 2-year-old boy has been pulled out of the pool limp and lifeless after a 6-minute submersion.  911 is called and EMS professionals are 7 minutes away.   They hear the tones go off at the station and are dispatched to a “2-year-old in cardiac arrest.”

We talk about CPR a lot. In the field, at conferences, with industry peers and even on social media. If you follow our social media accounts (and we hope you do, cough cough), you will often see stories about the benefits of CPR. One of the biggest topics we call out, is the importance of CPR administered in pre-hospital situations, since it greatly impacts the chances of a more positive outcome.

Denver Health is hosting the 43rd annual Rocky Mountain Trauma and Emergency Medicine Conference and I am honored to be delivering the opening keynote on June 16th focusing on Pediatric Resuscitation Psychology.

Sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) has garnered significant attention lately. And for good reason – according to SuddenCardiacArrest.org, it’s a leading cause of death in the U.S., claiming nearly 300,000 deaths each year.