BMJ  2007;334 (9 June), doi:10.1136/bmj.39237.605150.47

Editor's Choice

Editor's choice

About children . . . and more

Rajendra Kale, senior clinical editor

rkale@bmj.com

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

I am never surprised by what children can learn, nor am I surprised when they perform better than or as well as adults. This week Ian Jones and colleagues show that children aged 13-14 years can compress the chest (as part of acquiring resuscitation skills) as well as adults (doi: 10.1136/bmj.39167.459028.DE). Children aged 9-10 were not able to compress the chest sufficiently strongly, but they could position their hands correctly and press at the right rate. Optimistic about their results, the researchers say that the younger children could show adults the technique even if they can't do it themselves. But they do admit that emotional factors may affect the rescuer's performance, as would the need to provide rescue breaths. Lives would be saved, no doubt, but I worry about the effect that a dramatic episode of engaging in successful or unsuccessful real life cardiopulmonary resuscitation could have on a . . . [Full text of this article]


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Rapid Responses:

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Is modern medical science immoral?
BM Hegde
bmj.com, 9 Jun 2007 [Full text]
Depth and width of analysis
Krishnaswami Natarajan
bmj.com, 10 Jun 2007 [Full text]
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