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 First Responders
A wide
array of caregivers intercede with the family and
significant others from the point of death. First
responders may include police; firefighters, EMT from local,
private, voluntary or municipal ambulance services; hospital
emergency rooms and other emergency services. This time of
intense emergency requires the skill of practitioners
capable of offering treatment to the infant while responding
to the family’s desperate pleas for a miraculous reversal of
death. Clearly, caregivers representing these various
disciplines and specialties require in-depth education about
SIDS, acute grief and the full range of possible responses
exhibited by parents and significant others during this
acute period.
It is
important to note that few infant death scenes are crime
scenes. SIDS families should be treated with the same degree
of compassion and sympathy as other families who experience
a sudden death due to natural causes. It is understandable
to feel angry about the death of a helpless infant and
overwhelmed with the shock and grief of the family.
However, the family should be regarded as survivors, not
perpetrators or suspects. Regrettably, some police
officers/pre-hospital providers have actually reinforced the
parent’s feelings that they were somehow to blame for the
death. Most unfortunate of all is the SIDS family who, in a
state of shock, is treated with suspicion or accused of
abuse or neglect by those responding to or investigating the
death. Lifelong feelings of guilt and suspicion, difficulty
with other children, even divorce and suicide can be the
result of this tragedy and its immediate aftermath.
First
Candle is in the process of creating a model
First Responder Training manual/presentation and it will be
available on this site in the near future. If you need
immediate access and guidance on conducting a training,
please contact kathleen.graham@firstcandle.org or 800.638.7437.
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