ST. LOUIS — Summer is heating up, and for many families, that means it’s prime time to cool off in the pool. But, swim season can come with some serious safety risks.
5 On Your Side's Sydney Stallworth continued her annual swim safety reporting with more on how one St. Louis group is teaching parents life-saving tips for free.
St. Louis’ SWIM ON Foundation will come to your house and teach CPR, a skill that could truly mean the difference between life and death.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's most recent Vital Signs study became available to the public in May. The study found more than 4,500 people died due to drowning each year from 2020–2022, 500 more per year compared to 2019.
Drowning is the leading killer of kids ages 1-4, and drowning rates are highest among this age group. It’s a loss, unfortunately, SWIM ON Foundation co-founder Lisa McMullin has felt firsthand.
“We lost a child to drowning, a 22-month-old," McMullin said. "That was many years ago… There were eight adults there at the swimming pool. I think the most significant lesson we’ve learned from that and in our involvement since then is that people just don’t know... they don't know the risks.”
That's why, SWIM ON is teaching basic tips on how to save a life. The at-home lessons are for groups of eight to 10 people and last an hour and a half each. To sign up, email LMMcMullin@gmail.com.
This is CPR training with tips, but you will not end the lesson CPR certified. That’s a much longer process.
Young children aren't the only ones at risk of drowning. The CDC reports almost 40 million adults, or 15.4%, in the U.S. do not know how to swim, and over half (54.7%) have never taken a swimming lesson.
Those numbers are even higher for adults of color. About 36% of Black adults and 72% of Hispanic adults said they don't know how to swim.
It turns out, less than 20% of Americans are actually CPR certified. There’s a lot of misinformation floating around about how to do it.
5 On Your Side asked McMullin about the three biggest CPR myths she busts with her lessons. She said:
- People don’t want to push too hard while performing compressions-- but you have to! CPR compressions need to be two inches deep for an adult and 1.5 inches deep on an infant. You could break a person's rib, but that’s the only way to compress the heart and keep blood flowing.
- People don’t think they need an AED when performing CPR. If you have access to one, use it! The shocks will help restart the patient's normal heart rhythm.
- People think they should wait until an emergency responder shows up to administer CPR. Some people are frozen in shock or scared to start CPR because they don’t want to "mess up." But immediacy is what matters most, especially in cases of drownings. Jumping into action can raise a person’s chance of survival by up to 40%.
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