Sustainability Part 3 – Lifesaving resources: bringing value from international donors

This is the third post in a three part series, check out the first two below.

What we mean when we talk about “sustainability”. Part 1 of 3

Sustainability Part 2 – The lifeguard’s multi-tool?

Following on from our emphasis on local sourcing of materials… all that said, with certain items, there is huge value in bringing resources from the donor country.  CPR manikins are worth their weight in gold, particularly when they are the compact inflatable manikins now available from Laerdal.

We know from the science, that ventilations are absolutely critical in the resuscitation of a drowning casualty.

Many of the “low cost” alternatives to a manikin do not allow for ventilations.  Yes, we can draw an outline of person in the sand and press in the middle of the chest.   Yes, we can use a football to learn the right depth to compress.  Yes, we can use other students to learn the head-tilt chin-lift.  However, these are poor quality alternatives.  In high income countries we train hard to teach people the complete sequence in a lifelike setting, with lifelike resources; the better we train them, the better they will respond in an emergency.

Why don’t our students in low income countries deserve exactly the same?  Especially as they are much more likely to be doing CPR than our high-income students.

The Laerdal Mini Anne is compact, light-weight, reasonably robust (although we have burst a few), and cheap.  For the money invested in this equipment, the educational benefit to our students, and the subsequent standard of resuscitation that we can train them to, we believe it is worth it. They are small enough to travel in the international instructors’ luggage, and don’t look like anything too scary on an x-ray security scan.

The story of Husam that we posted a few months ago serves to underline that point very well. Would that outcome have been the same if he had been taught CPR on an outline drawing in the sand?  We will never know for sure.

What equipment from HICs do you use in LMICs?  What are you not willing to compromise on?

Disclaimer:  Nile Swimmers has received donations of equipment from Laerdal UK, but they have no editorial control over what we write on this website. This is our honest opinion of using their equipment.