No one ever wants to be placed in a position where they have to perform CPR on someone. But we all learn just in case. We sweat through the first aid class and try desperately to remember the steps. We worry about how many times we have to breathe into the person, where to push down on the chest, and how often and fast.
But performing CPR has just got a whole lot easier with an American Heart Association announcement Monday that the days of mouth-to-mouth breathing are now over.
Hands Only CPR - calling for help and deep, rapid chest compressions - at a rate of 100/minute - until help arrives is new recommended practice.
While it might seem like an extreme change to a practice that we have all had drilled into us at first aid classes, experts have been working towards this for some time. Studies have increasingly shown that hands-only was as good as traditional CPR.
Some experts, such as Dr. Gordon Ewy, director of the University of Arizona Sarver Heart Center in Tucson, have been advocating for hands-only CPR for over 10 years. The whole concept of compression-only CPR tecnique was pioneered at the Arizona Saver Heart Center.
Ewy has long argued that ‘…there’s no point to giving early breaths in the case of sudden cardiac arrest, and it takes too long to stop compressions to give two breaths - 16 seconds for the average person’.
And he also points out that ‘Anonymous surveys show that people are reluctant to do mouth-to-mouth…partly because of fear of infections.’
But it’s important to realize that this new practice is only for adults. Collapsed children and babies should still be given mouth-to-mouth. This is because they are more likely to have collapse due to breathing problems.
The American Heart Association has launched a new website - Hands On CPR - to provide information and education on this new practice. They are also going to feature a series of short videos on YouTube about Hands On CPR. Check out their first one - Rocket Science - a humorous look at three scientists debating what to do when a colleague collapses…
Recommended practice from Hands On CPR website:
Two steps to save a life:
When an adult suddenly collapses, trained or untrained bystanders – that means a person near the victim – should:
1) Call 911
2) Push hard and fast in the center of the chest.
Studies of real emergencies that have occurred in homes, at work or in public locations, show that these two steps, called Hands-Only CPR, can be as effective as conventional CPR. Providing Hands-Only CPR to an adult who has collapsed from a sudden cardiac arrest can more than double that person’s chance of survival. 