New York Parents Seek Law to Compel Police to Help in Medical Emergencies

This is a very sad story but I have to ask: If you are the parent of an asthmatic child who is at at risk of dying from it, and as a parent probably 90% likely to be in that situation with the child WHY would you not know CPR yourself, just in case? I agree that police officers should be trained in CPR and other first aid but the true first responder in this case was the mother, so she is just as much if not more responsible for this tragedy.

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You all know that CPR doesn't save the life of someone having an asthma attack, right? As a New York EMT, and an asthmatic myself, the 2 things I would want are oxygen, albuterol (y'know, that medicine in an inhaler). Followed by a quick trip to the hospital

What CPR does is this: it forces your heart to start pumping blood so you don't die of heart failure. You blow (hopefully mouth-to-mask) into the person's lungs to keep oxygen flowing into the person's body. All the o2 a person breathes in is never consumed fully, it's decreased by a small, nominal amount, so the person is getting o2.

Now, when a person has an asthma attack, what's happening? The bronchi, the air tubes that transport o2 to the area of the lungs where your blood gets o2, swell up. It could be from allergic reaction as well, but that happens in only severe allergic reactions, and in those cases the entire respiratory track is closed up. Now, if those tubes swell to the point of closure, how can forcing air into the area work? It can't, quite simply.

However, no one seems to be raising the question of this girl's medication. Drugs like Advair (which I am personally on) can raise the risk you have of dying from asthma-related causes. Where was this girl's inhaler? Why wasn't the mother properly trained in handling this? Why did she drive to the hospital, denying her daughter treatment en route to the hospital? There -are- paramedics in the City, and they are trained to intubate and do a lot of things that could have saved this girl's life. As a mother too, I say the mom did the wrong thing to begin with. She could not have learned anything about her daughter's condition; it's evident by how this played out. The cop was no better.

Please note, CPR DOES NOT ALWAYS WORK. In fact, it only works 33% of the time. And can break your sternum. Ow.

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I also agree with you K. Unfortunately we now live in a world where no one ever takes responsibility for their own actions or lack of actions. It's so much easier to blame someone else. While I do agree that police should have basic emergency training, I do not believe they should be fully responsible for administering medical care, otherwise they would have just become EMT's in the first place. The parents of an asthmatic child should certainly know CPR.

As far as the officer goes, you would think that a police officer would WANT to know how to perform basic CPR. I know if it had been me standing there with a child dying right before my eyes, I would not be able to get over the guilt of knowing that if I had taken half a day to update my CPR certification I may have been able to save that child and even if I was unable to save her, at least I could rest easier knowing that I really tried to save her.

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You're right Liz and maybe we shouldn't speak in detail about matters we obviously don't know everything about, but I think at least in the case of my response the basic principle remains the same, which I see that you also agree with, the parents should be responsible and the cop should have had some basic training.

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As a parent of a child with severe asthma I feel deeply for what this mom is now going through.....on that same note we cannot blame the officer. Even if he had done CPR on the little girl it would not have helped her as her airway was closing and no air could get through anyway. I very nearly lost my 7yr old son 3yrs ago to a severe asthma attack ( he was in the middle of having a breathing treatment when this happened) if it hadn't been for the paramedics I wouldn't have him with me today. Unless you are standing outside of the hosp when an attack occurs the first and best action is to call 911 and use emergency inhalers....we never go anywhere without one and on long trips carry not only that but have an adapter for the car and keep a nebulizer with us as well.

First and foremost we must keep our childrens safety above all else. If your child is a severe asthmatic make sure they are taking their preventative meds daily...during peek allergy/asthma season (check with their Dr.) use the inhaler every 4 hours as a preventative and always make sure you carry one with you. If the weather is bad for asthmatics don't go out and always call 911 in an emergency!!! We live out in the woods and the paramedics first responder was here in less than 2 minutes.

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I don't get you guys... When a parent sees her child in pain or sick her first reaction is PANIC MODE and what to do next. In this case we should not be asking"Why didn't this idiot loser why the parent didn't know or administer CPR, but why when we look to the LAW for help, we don't get any help. Oh but let it be a state official or someone that's famous, right away they are handled with privacy and privilege ....Police get away with a lot of wrongdoing and get slaps on their wrists.... Time to stop the madness.

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