Water safety heavyweights Royal Lifesaving (RLSSA) and Kids Alive have joined forces to ensure more Australians know how to save the life of a little one, launching The Heart Beat Club, a free online training aimed at empowering Australians with vital CPR and first aid knowledge for infants and toddlers.
Despite 90 per cent of parents acknowledging how critical CPR training was, a recent survey by RLSSA revealed a concerning gap with only 59 per cent of Australian parents completing CPR training, and a mere 23 per cent having gained the skill in the past 12 months.
Lauren Nimmo, Senior Manager – Research, Media and Communications at Royal Life Saving WA said the statistics suggested families were underprepared to handle an emergency.
“More than 40 per cent of parents don’t have any CPR skills and we know resuscitation knowledge significantly diminishes within 3-6 months post-training, so there is a huge need for more education and for people to refresh their skills.”
“The Heart Beat Club makes it easy because it removes some of the common barriers such as cost and time that people claim prevents them from gaining this life saving knowledge.”
Laurie Lawrence, founder of Kids Alive, urged every parent and grandparent to take advantage of the free course.
“Last year 16 children died from drowning in Australia and for every one of them eight children were hospitalised following a non- fatal drowning incident, many of which are left with lifelong impact. Lives are lost in pools, dams, baths, sinks and even nappy buckets. These lives could potentially be saved using the skills learnt in just an hour at home with The Heart Beat Club.”
“This initiative represents a vital bridge to helping curb these numbers and ensure that every Australian can confidently respond in a crisis because any attempt at CPR when a child is not breathing can dramatically increase survival rates.”
Set to launch May 1, 2024, The Heart Beat Club will offer a month free access to its online training and will cover a range of topics including CPR skills, along with first aid essentials like how to treat common injuries, choking, burns, scalds, control of bleeding, dealing with shock and control of communicable disease.
Designed to be completed in just one hour people can register for a login at www.heartbeatclub.org.au.
Case Study:
Mother of 7 (soon to be 8 ) Krystal Karacsony knows how vital CPR skills are after she saved her neighbours little girl’s life when she was 11 months old.
“It was baking a birthday cake for my family, when I heard a scream for help.
“I poked my head out to see what was going on and heard my neighbour pleading for anyone who knew first aid. I yelled that I did, and she ran towards me, put her baby in my arms and told me she wasn’t breathing,” said Krystal.
Krystal’s neighbour had found her 11-month-old daughter unresponsive in the bath, she was blue and floppy, and Krystal immediately went into action.
“I was pregnant with my own daughter at the time, and I just knew I had to do something. I grabbed the child and quickly checked to see if she was breathing, checked her pulse and started doing CPR,” she said.
“I was hyper-focused just counting compressions and breaths. All I kept thinking was, what if this was my own daughter? Her life was in my hands.”
A few minutes later the baby began coughing up water and taking laboured breaths, so Krystal placed her in the recovery position and continued to monitor her. The child, who is now 4, went on to make a full recovery after being treated in hospital.
