The likelihood that a child will survive a near-drowning without long-term damage is substantially greater if a bystander attempts a rescue, even if that person doesn’t perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), according to new research presented October 10 at the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) 2021 National Conference.
“The extent to which bystander rescue is associated with reduced odds of unfavorable drowning outcomes was surprising,” said lead investigator Rohit P. Shenoi, MD, professor of pediatrics at Baylor College of Medicine and attending physician at Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston.
“While we do know that early rescue and resuscitation is helpful in preventing severe drowning injury, the degree of benefit from bystander rescue in all cases of pediatric drowning has not been described so far,” he told Medscape Medical News.
The fact that a bystander’s rescue attempt improves a child’s odds of a good outcome is not surprising on its own, but the magnitude of the finding really affirms the importance of bystander intervention, said Benjamin Hoffman, MD, professor of pediatrics at the Oregon Health & Science University School of Medicine and medical director of the Tom Sargent Safety Center at the Doernbecher Children’s Hospital in Portland.
“If an adult finds a child in the water, even if they don’t administer formal CPR, they’re going to be doing things” to try to help, Hoffman, who was not involved in this research but who specializes in child injury prevention, told Medscape Medical News. The act of intervening — whether it’s formal CPR or a CPR attempt or even just calling appropriate first responders — “likely impacts the duration of the submersion” and “clearly makes a difference.”
Drowning is the leading cause of death for children younger than 4 years, Hoffman noted, adding that the AAP recommends swimming lessons for children older than 1 year to reduce that risk.
In their cross-sectional study, Shenoi and his colleagues analyzed data on drownings and near-drownings in children and adolescents younger than 18 years using hospital, emergency medical services, and child fatality records from Harris County, Texas.
They identified 264 incidents from 2010 to 2013 in which the young person was submerged. Median age of the victims was 3.2 years, 60% were male, and 64% were Black, Hispanic, or Native American, and 78% occurred in a swimming pool.
Unfavorable outcomes — defined as death or severe impairment after hospital discharge — were experienced by 38 victims (14.4%) and were significantly associated with being submerged for longer than 5 minutes (P < .001).
The odds of an unfavorable outcome dropped by 80% if a bystander attempted a rescue, whether or not they performed CPR (adjusted odds ratio [aOR], 0.2; P = .004). If the bystander performed CPR, the odds of an unfavorable outcome dropped by a similar amount, but the difference was not statistically significant (aOR, 0.22; P = .07).
However, previous research has shown a significant reduction in poor outcomes when CPR is administered to children who have been submerged, Hoffman explained.
The most important thing a bystander can do is simply get a submerged child out of the water. “Early rescue in drowning terminates what is initially a respiratory arrest from progressing to a full cardiopulmonary arrest with severe hypoxic brain injury and death,” Shenoi said.
“CPR is also very important, and rescue and resuscitation go hand in hand. We encourage all lay persons to be trained in CPR so that they can administer correct CPR techniques,” he added.
Both Shenoi and Hoffman emphasized the value of CPR training for adults, as the AAP recommends, and the importance of other precautions that reduce the risk of drowning.
“Drowning prevention should consist of multiple layers of prevention,” Shenoi said. These consist of “close, constant, and attentive supervision; isolation fencing for swimming pools; and water competency, including water-safety knowledge, basic swim skills, and the ability to recognize and respond to a swimmer in trouble, use of life jackets, and early bystander CPR.”
The relative importance of each of those layers depends on geography and circumstances, Hoffman said. Pools are the most common drowning sites in the United States overall, but they’re much more common in warmer states, such as California, Florida, and Texas, which have more pools. In contrast, drownings in Oregon are more likely to occur in rivers, so prevention is more about access to life jackets and increasing access to swim lessons.
The findings from this study drive home how important it is for physicians to provide anticipatory guidance to families on reducing the risk of drowning. Pediatricians should to convey to families the need for different layers of protection, he added.
“If your family spends a lot of time around water, whether open water or swimming pools, the more layers you can provide, the better off you’re going to be,” Hoffman said.
Shenoi echoed this sentiment.
“The take-home message is to be observant if you are entrusted with the care of a child around water,” Shenoi said. “If you notice the child to be drowning, either attempt rescue yourself if it is safe to do so or enlist the help of others to save the victim as soon as possible. However, the rescuer should not place himself or herself in danger when attempting rescue.”
The five steps in the “drowning chain of survival” — preventing drowning, recognizing distress, providing flotation, removing the victim from the water, and providing care and CPR as needed — are key to reducing drowning deaths and injury, Shenoi emphasized.
Shenoi has disclosed no relevant financial relationships . Hoffman is a paid consultant on child drowning prevention for the nonprofit Anonymous Philanthropy LLC.
American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) 2021 National Conference. Presented October 10, 2021.
Tara Haelle is a Dallas-based science and medical journalist.
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