Blog guest: Water Rescue Association of Serbia – First Aid, CPRMarch 2020

Are parents supposed to master the basic resuscitation (CPR) and first aid techniques so that their children could be safer? What are parents supposed to know and what can they do before the ambulance arrives? For the Swimming Dad as a #Blog guest, these questions are answered by the Water Rescue Association of Serbia based on the experience they have had for more than two decades now.

Are parents supposed to master the basic resuscitation (CPR) and first aid techniques so that their children could be safer?

It would be helpful for parents to master some of the basic techniques and get some basic knowledge, but it is not crucial if we are talking about a regulated swimming area equipped with the necessary infrastructure, because all such swimming areas should have a rescue team and the first aid team on duty. However, knowing some basic first aid measures should be a part of the general knowledge of all adults in general.

If an unwanted situation occurs at the pool or at the seaside… and there are no lifeguards, what are parents supposed to know and what can they do on the spot before the ambulance arrives?

Parents can help their children in some other way without having a direct contact with them. They can pass them a floating object (a ball, swim rings..) without having a direct contact with them, because a drowning person (even a child) driven by adrenaline has more strength than usually. A small child can easily overpower an adult if driven by adrenaline and therefore put that person in danger if the person approaches the child in a non-professional way. In these situations, when there is no professional help to count on, the best thing you could do is passing

a floating object and avoiding a direct contact with the drowning person.

How important is the frequent training not only for the lifeguards, but also for health workers to stay in shape if their help is needed?

It is recommended that all lifeguards and health workers and all other employees at the swimming areas should keep themselves fit so that they could provide proper help in certain situations. On the other hand, it is vital to revise regularly the knowledge already acquired to prevent forgetting things after some time. This is why it is necessary for all the employees (health workers, lifeguards and all others) to have periodical trainings and seminars in order to revise and upgrade their knowledge.

Water Rescue Association of Serbia http://spasioci.rs is a non-governmental non-profit vocational association established in Belgrade (Serbia) back in 2004 with the aim to gather lifeguards and other stakeholders at one place in order to improve the area of water rescue. The

association is dealing with the organisation of trainings and professional development of water lifeguards, keeping up with the latest professional and technical developments in the field of water rescue and information on that, in cooperation with similar organisations in the country and abroad.

Two decades of experience in this business, with several hundreds of successful interventions and dozens of rescued people, make this organisation one of the best if not the best rescue organisation in the region without having a single drowned person at the beaches and facilities

supervised by the members of this association.