Following report that drowning is one of five leading causes of death in the Caribbean among children
Editor:
One day before the following article appeared from Washington reports from the Royal Montserrat Police Force Service reported scantily that a young girl is in critical situation after being rescued in a swimming pool from drowning by her father who drowned while trying to save the child.
The father, according to Deputy Commissioner Charles Thompson emergency services responded to a call for assistance from a residence in Old Towne. Upon arrival they found an 11-year-old girl and a man thought to be in his early 40’s receiving CPR by others on the scene.
The girl responded to CPR and was taken to the hospital by the ambulance, while the man was unresponsive and was later pronounced dead. The girl went by medevac to Antigua because of her condition.
Thompson also disclosed that CPR was performed by two US nationals who were in the area and former Deputy Commissioner Paul Morris who had been out for his afternoon walk. Morris said it was not his usual route but had felt led to take a different path that evening.
In recent years there have been reported cases drowning to include children. It is a fact that Montserrat may well be among or fit the statistic highlighted in the article. There is the feeling that perhaps because there may be one death per year, there is no need to worry, while statistically that per capita may be higher than everywhere else. In such a case the findings and recommendations may well be very relevant to Montserrat.
Report
WASHINGTON, CMC – A new report says drowning is among the five leading causes of death among children aged 14 years and under in the Caribbean and the rest of the Americas.
According to the first “Global Report on Drowning: Preventing a Leading Killer,” published by the World Health Organization (WHO) and presented by the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), drowning takes the life of 372,000 people around the world every year and is one of the 10 leading causes of death among children and young people worldwide.
However, experts agree that drowning tends not to be addressed as a public health issue, PAHO said.
The report, therefore, calls for considerably stepped-up efforts and increased resources to prevent drowning, including several measures that national decision-making bodies and local communities should adopt to save the lives of many children and young people.
During the presentation of the report, PAHO Assistant Director Francisco Becerra underscored the importance of finding resources to investigate best practices in the region aimed at preventing deaths and injuries from drowning.
“We need to address the deaths by drowning that occur every day, particularly among children. The lessons learned in different interventions to prevent deaths and injuries from drowning are very important in order to address this problem effectively.”
Becerra said local communities can adopt strategies that include installing barriers to restrict access to bodies of water; close supervision of infants and children under five; teaching children basic swimming skills; and training possible bystanders in safe rescue and resuscitation.
He said interventions at the national level may include stricter recreational boating, commercial shipping, and passenger ferry regulations; better flood risk management; and comprehensive water safety policies.
The report was launched with the joint participation of WHO and Bloomberg Philanthropies, which financed the report.
WHO’s Department of Noncommunicable Diseases, Disabilities, Violence, and Injury Prevention, David Meddings, pointed out that the subject of drowning is not frequently addressed and that prevention is feasible.
“We must keep in mind that about 100 people will die from this cause in the next two hours, and most of the victims are young people in low-and middle-income countries,” he said.
