Emotional reactions to the sudden death of a child: the challenge to emergency care providers.
The death of a child has the potential to traumatize everyone involved. Child deaths caused by auto crashes, suicides, murders, gun accidents, drowning, fires, natural disasters, sudden illness, and other events trigger painful and profound emotional grief reactions in family members, and, at times, for emergency care providers. What grief reactions do family members experience when their child dies suddenly? What emotional struggles take place with siblings? How do emergency care providers cope with the tragic and painful deaths of children? We are guided by the literature and by our own experiences in pediatric emergency departments in trying to supply answers to the questions posed.
Lipton
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American Psychological Association, Washington, DC, USA.
D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000339:Affect; D001293:Attitude to Death; D001601:Bereavement; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003376:Counseling; D004632:Emergency Medical Services; D006282:Health Personnel; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D013313:Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic / Q000523:psychology* / Q000628:therapy*