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To determine criteria for cessation of resuscitative efforts, investigators evaluated 1-year outcomes of drowned children (<16 years of age) who presented with cardiac arrest and hypothermia (core temperature <34°C) to medical centers in the Netherlands from 1993 to 2012.
Of 160 children (median age, 2 years), 137 had return of spontaneous circulation and 23 died in the emergency department; 46 children (29%) survived to discharge. Of the 44 children (28%) alive at 1 year, 17 had favorable outcomes (defined as no, mild, or moderate neurologic disabilities). All 98 children who received advanced life support for >30 minutes (including 12 who received extracorporeal life support) had poor outcomes; 87 died and 11 survived in a vegetative state…