Posted on 03/31/2008 1:31:01 PM PDT by buccaneer81
New CPR advice: chest compressions only Heart Association hopes simpler guidelines save lives Monday, March 31, 2008 4:00 PM By Suzanne Hoholik THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH Hands-only CPR
When you see an adult collapse:
* 1. Call 9-1-1. * 2. Start hard, fast compressions at the center of the chest. Trade off with someone if you get tired. If no one else is around, continue compressions until paramedics arrive.
In an effort to get more bystanders to perform CPR, the American Heart Association issued new guidelines today changing the way it teaches the lifesaving technique by eliminating mouth-to-mouth breaths.
When an adult collapses, bystanders are to call 9-1-1, then start hard, fast compressions at the center of a victim’s chest until paramedics arrive.
This is an easier, less complicated way to aid a person with sudden cardiac arrest. You don’t have to remember all the steps of traditional CPR – checking the airway, tilting the head, remembering the number of compressions to alternate with the number of breaths.
People don’t do CPR for a variety of reasons, including that they’re not trained or they think they’ll break a rib. Then there’s the “yuck factor” of putting their mouth on a stranger’s.
Experts found that pumping the heart is the most important piece to help the victim, and they want bystanders to do it.
“We want people to know we think it’s OK for them to help even if they’ve never been trained,” said Dr. Michael Sayre, an emergency-room physician at Ohio State University Medical Center and chairman of the heart association’s committee writing the recommendations.
If you’re alone when someone collapses, he said, compress the victim’s chest until EMS arrives, even if you get tired. If someone else is around, “after a couple minutes they can trade off,” Sayre said.
In Columbus, he said, only about one-quarter of the people who collapse from sudden cardiac arrest get CPR. Doing chest compressions immediately will double or triple a person’s chance of surviving.
“So, if people are even doing that, they’re doing the most important part,” said Capt. Dave Roggenkamp, a paramedic with the Columbus Division of Fire.
After Arizona paramedics began using compressions-only CPR, the survival rates tripled for adults suffering sudden cardiac arrest, according to results published this month in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
The heart association’s new guidelines should not be used on infants, children or adults whose cardiac arrest is from respiratory causes such as a drug overdose or near-drowning.
shoholik@dispatch.com
Ping.
Just assume you will break a rib and stop worrying about it. Better a broken rib then a dead guy.
If you are doing it correctly, you damned well will break or at least crack a few ribs.
Yea, especially concidering the odds of you reviving someone with CPR are incredibly minute. It does happen, but its very very very unlikely you will revive someone with classic CPR.
I forget the ratio of chest compressions to lung inflations. It is many to one. Lung inflations won’t do much good if the blood isn’t circulating. Those who are unsure might do well to follow the advice in the article, which got wide distribution in the MSM last week.
Lots of questions here, they don’t mention it but my understanding is it’s important to ascertain the person really has a stopped heart before doing CPR. Not just start it once a person collapses. Lots of people faint. Also, I’ve read only a small percentage of CPR cases survive, and most with disability thereafter. I’m wondering if it’s good to increase the number of untrained bystanders who think they should start compressions as soon as they see someone collapse.
We have about 1000 people at my company on first shift. We had two saves with our AEDs last year. They are fantastic.
I was just glad when they stopped calling it ‘The Kiss of Life’. That was icky.
True. Rule #1: Check for signs of life (pulse, breathing.)
Hmm...
Yes they are.... I am not opposed to CPR, but it is sold often to the general public without realistic expectations... the odds of reviving someone using standard CPR are truly next to nill.. I know EMT’s and others who in 20 year careers could claim 1 revival if they were lucky, prior to AED’s becoming standard equipment.
I am not saying if you have the chance, don’t do CPR, obviously do it, but if the person you are trying to save doesn’t make it.. don’t beat yourself up over it.. you are playing some incredibly slim odds... Also, don’t be afraid or put off when you hear the ribs or sternum cracking.. if they don’t (at least for an adult) you aren’t putting enough pressure on the chest cavity to message the heart anyway.
Without certification, the liability question is HUGE. I'm not saying people shouldn't help others in need, but the legal liability question is NOT being addressed by this doctor.
I probably did CPR close to 100 times in my ambulance days and I trust the Heart Association’s research, however,I am a little at loss to understand how circulating unoxygenated blood will help survival rates. While the compressions only procedure is not recommended for cases of cardiac arrest following respiratory arrest, sometimes you just don’t know the cause of the cardiac arrest. I guess that doing something is better than doing nothing in these cases.
Good point. Those of us who are certified are protected from liability under Ohio law.
People are afraid of lawsuits. Very sad.
Thanks for posting. I can’t even remember what it was the first time I took CPR 30 PLUS years ago :)
CPR by itself has an extremely low success rate, but immediate CPR can improve the chances that the AED will be able to get the job done. Usually CPR can be started almost instantly, whereas it may take a couple of minutes or more to locate the AED and person who knows how to use it, bring it to the victim, and get it opened up. The victim has a much better chance if those minutes include chest compressions.
Many states have good samaritan laws as long as you act in good faith.
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