A 5-year-old boy died after choking on a morsel of food while having dinner with his parents in his home in Sestu, in the metropolitan city of Cagliari. The drama occurred on the evening of Sunday 22 February, during what should have been a normal family dinner.
The alarm went off around 8.30pm, when the little boy began to show obvious breathing difficulties: a piece of frankfurter had blocked his airways. The parents, guided by telephone by the 118 operators, desperately tried to free his throat, but without success. An ambulance from the emergency medical service quickly arrived on the scene.
The medics who intervened in the house managed to free the child’s airways in a short time, but he had already lost consciousness and was in cardiac arrest. Doctors tried to resuscitate him for over 40 minutes, but all efforts were in vain. The little boy was declared dead on the spot, before the helpless eyes of his parents.
The carabinieri of the Sestu station, dependent on the Quartu Company, are investigating the incident, having collected the testimonies of the family members and health workers who intervened to reconstruct the dynamics of the tragedy.
At school and beyond: first aid must become mandatory
There is a concept that we can no longer afford to ignore: learning unblocking maneuvers and first aid techniques must become an obligation, not a choice, at school and beyond. In Italy we are still behind, and tragedies like this remind us of this in the most painful way possible.
Most countries do NOT have a structured and uniform obligation to teach rescue maneuvers in school courses, but the discussion goes well beyond the classrooms, life-saving maneuvers should be mandatory in all contexts and not just those considered at risk. They should be part of the path to becoming parents, as well as antenatal courses. They should be a requirement for obtaining a driving license, as is already the case in Germany, France and other European countries. And they should be promoted by health institutions through public campaigns that are free and accessible to all.
Every year in Italy dozens of people – children and adults – die from suffocation in situations where timely and correct intervention could have saved their lives. We cannot continue to delegate everything to 118, which often arrives when it is already too late. We are the first responders: whoever is present in that moment. And to really be, we must be prepared.
