News anchor tearfully appealing to parents to learn infant CPR after newborn health scare

Fear for the health of a Nebraska newscaster’s family prompted him to make a heartfelt appeal to parents to learn how to practice CPR on their infants and children.

Bill Schammert, the evening news anchor for CBS affiliate KOLN-TV in Lincoln, New York, choked on his show Monday night after returning to the press office after his newcomer was hospitalized. -born. While Schammert was moved to viewers, on January 5 his youngest son, Cameron, 13 days old, appeared ill, later turning purple and “breathless” as his father loaded him into his car seat. Although Schammert and his wife, Kym, received training in infant CPR as part of their prenatal classes a few months before the birth of their firstborn in 2018, Theo, he tells Yahoo Life he switched to panic mode as he and Kym frantically called 911 for help.

“Especially when it’s your own child – you’re panicked and confused and you don’t know what to do,” Schammert says.

Fortunately, a 911 dispatcher – whom Schammert hailed as a “hero” on his now-viral show – was able to “walk us through it all” while he and Kym performed CPR on their son. She also dispatched paramedics, who arrived shortly after Cameron started crying, a sign the child had caught his breath. Cameron spent the next 36 hours in hospital, where a chest x-ray revealed an unknown viral infection in his lungs.

“[Doctors] thinks he had mucus clogging his airway, and at 13 days he didn’t know how to expel, so he stopped breathing, “Schammert says, adding that Cameron” is doing very well. He is a normal, healthy little boy at the moment.

While the Schammers were able to avert a tragic loss, the reporter says the incident highlighted the importance of learning CPR in infants and children. He and Kym received their own hospital refresher course with Cameron last week, watching videos and talking to a nurse about what to do in the event of another fear.

The story continues

“I encourage everyone – all parents, grandparents, guardians – if they haven’t taken a CPR course, to do so, and if they have taken one, and that’s been over. a year, it doesn’t take too long to refresh yourself, ”he told Yahoo Life.

He adds that he and his wife plan to meet with the dispatcher who helped them save Cameron’s life.

“911 operators are really the first line of defense,” he says. “They’re our first responders, and they’re so underrated, and they shouldn’t be.”

He also reviews the comments that have poured in from his show, which many other parents have shared with their own spooky experiences.

“The comments, messages and outpouring of support are beyond anything we could have imagined, and I’ve read every one of them on Facebook and on Twitter,” he says. “When you go through something like this with your own child, you can feel isolated and like no one understands what you are going through, when in fact it has let me know exactly the opposite. There are so many people who know exactly what we are going through, and people who may have lost their child who are so lovable that ours survived, who share their stories of survival and the impact of CPR on them. life, and that is overwhelming.

“The point is to let people know: that little thing, CPR, the 10 minute class you get at work once a year, or what you learn for 30 minutes before having a baby, don’t brush it. no, because you never know when you’ll need to know it, and it can really – we are proof of that – save lives.

Dr David Markenson, chief medical officer of training services for the American Red Cross, agrees that it is essential for caregivers to know how to administer first aid and perform CPR, saying: “In what could be a tragic situation , you can save a life if you are trained.

It is also important that this training is specific to infants and children, he adds.

“Because children’s bodies and the way they work – especially infants – are different from adults, you need to know how to help them, and the technique of CPR and some first aid steps are very different for an infant and a child. He said. Yahoo Life. “So if it’s good to know what to do for adults, for kids and infants, you need to have special training in their CPR and first aid.

“Some of the important differences are where you put your hands on your chest [to do CPR] when a child isn’t breathing and responding, ”says Markenson. “In an infant it’s right between the nipple line, and you want to press hard and fast, but the depth of pressure is less in an infant than in an adult, about an inch and a half. If you are not trained, the best thing to do is to press between the nipple line about an inch and a half as fast as you can, up and down, up and down.

If he emphasizes that “the best thing to do is to train yourself”, relying on “the three Cs” can also save lives in a pinch.

“We tell people to remember three things in an emergency, and it’s easy to remember. The three Cs: check, call, treat, ”he explains. “Check and find out what’s going on. Then call 911, then provide care while you are trained. All the steps are important and easy to remember, but we really do want to call 911 early … this dispatcher will not only help you, but can walk you through the phone with what to do.

He also advises using the speakerphone function to keep your hands free for compressions while a dispatcher guides you through the process; the Red Cross first aid app, he notes, will provide instructions and connect users to a 911 dispatcher via speakerphone. Markenson emphasizes the value of training in hands-on, in-person classes – which he ensures are safe and ‘perfectly clean’ during the pandemic through social distancing and the use of personal equipment – but training online is also available through the American Red Cross.

“While it’s rare to have to do CPR or first aid for an infant or child, it can happen,” he says. “And if you don’t know what to do, the result can be, of course, horrible… In the heat of the emergency, the fear of not knowing what to do is the biggest obstacle. Training allows you to do something. “

Learn more about Yahoo Life

Want to get lifestyle and wellness news delivered to your inbox? register here for the Yahoo Life newsletter.