Hockey Canada requires all organizations which manages more than 500,000 players to have training in first aid and CPR in its minor leagues. There were eight deaths of minor and major junior league hockey players caused by cardiac arrest on the ice or at the rink.
Why CPR training is a must
A 16-year-old player named Jordan from Nova Scotia collapse at the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League training camp following a cardiac arrest. Trained staff provided CPR on the boy and it was almost more than 10 minutes before Jordan was shocked with defibrillator. He was eventually declared dead at the hospital. It is not clear if how many players have died in the past years, were given CPR or AED intervention.
According to Todd Jackson, head of Hockey Canada safety program, they created a user-friendly program that can be worked with at the minor hockey level and encourages training in first aid and CPR is very important. He requires team to develop an emergency plan that identifies the responsibilities of a member such as who is the person responsible for providing help for a player who is down and the person who will call the emergency numbers. Furthermore he requires teams to identify parents or any volunteers who knows how to provide first aid and CPR.
One responsibility under the emergency plan includes highly trained medical personnel in the arena facility if the person in charge believes that the injury is severe and needs medical attention immediately. This is done by using a loudspeaker or another way is having the staff of the arena ask throughout the facility.
According to Dr. Tatiana Jevremovic, the moment when a person loses a heartbeat and blood circulation stops, every minute is very critical and having to spend time looking for anybody with first aid training can waste precious time during cardiac arrest emergencies. If a person collapse for no reason and no identified collision, keep in mind that an unexplained collapse could be a cardiac arrest and needs help immediately. Furthermore Jevromovic warns anybody that before he or she is able to properly assess a player, these people needs some level of first aid and CPR training.
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LEARN MORE
Learn how to help by enrolling in a first aid course and for more information, check out these sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cardiopulmonary_resuscitation