Good news on CPR
Add comment April 3rd, 2008
I took a CPR course at OSF Saint Anthony Medical Center a few years ago. I remember aceing the written test but leaving very unsure about whether I could ever do CPR for real. Was that 30 compressions to every two breaths? No, wait a minute. That can’t be right. (It was.) And what if I forget to check the airway and force some object into the person’s lungs? I was proud to get my card in the mail that showed I was a certified in CPR, but it didn’t help that insecure feeling.
Turns out I wasn’t alone. Far from it. A survey done by the American Heart Association showed that most people in a crisis didn’t try CPR because they were afraid to hurt someone by doing something wrong. But that hesitation could be the very thing that costs a cardiac victim his or her life. Brain damage can happen in as little as 4 minutes if the heart can’t pump oxygenated blood to the brain.
So I was relieved this week to see that the heart association has formally recommended that chest compressions alone can save lives. If you have two hands (and dial 911 first) you might be able to rescue a victim of cardiac arrest from likely death. The catch is that the compressions have to be firm and fast — 100 presses per minute — and the person must be unresponsive.
That’s not very hard to remember.
The American Red Cross doesn’t agree with the “hands only” recommendation, and still recommends the traditional mouth-to-mouth coupled with chest compressions. I’m sure the organization has its reasons.
But if I’m lying unresponsive on the floor — or one of my loved ones is in the same state — I’d sure want whoever is there to try something rather than nothing. At that point, I don’t want to see their CPR card or know what they scored on their test. I’d want them to just do it.
