Basic life support

Paediatric basic life support is not simply a scaled-down version of the adult algorithm. For the purposes of paediatric life support guidelines, some of the techniques employed need to be varied according to the size of the child. Once the child has been approached safely, checked for responsiveness and help has been summoned, assessment and treatment follow the familiar ABCDE pattern. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, there were only a few reports of transmission of infectious diseases from casualties to rescuers during mouth-to mouth resuscitation. The most serious concern was meningococcus, and rescuers involved in the resuscitation of the airway in such patients took standard prophylactic antibiotics. The vast majority of deaths from foreign body airway obstruction occur in pre-school-age children. Airway obstruction may also occur with infectious conditions such as acute epiglottitis and croup.