View Full Version : Important- New CPR Recommendations!!
saltydad
09-30-2010, 05:08 PM
Continuous chest compressions is the latest recommendation. You do not need to be certified to use this method. I highly recommend all who are not health professionals to become knowledgeable in this lifesaving technique!
Learn Sarver Heart Center's Continuous Chest Compression CPR | College of Medicine (http://medicine.arizona.edu/spotlight/learn-sarver-heart-centers-continuous-chest-compression-cpr)
MediaHound
09-30-2010, 08:10 PM
YouTube - Continuous Chest Compression CPR?University of Arizona Sarver Heart Center (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EcbgpiKyUbs&feature=player_embedded)
LilRaverBoi
09-30-2010, 09:47 PM
Hmmm....this must be very recent. I was retrained this summer and it was 30 compressions (rate of 100/min) per two rescue breaths. If two rescuers are present, 15 compressions to 2 breaths. Continuous compressions were only given if an advanced airway was placed.
Patty in Wisc
10-01-2010, 08:42 AM
My question is, how do you know if it;s a heart attack? What if it's someone who collapsed from low bld sugar or from choking. Also, this will bring blood to the brain but what about getting oxygen to brain? Isn't that just as important?
LilRaverBoi
10-01-2010, 02:07 PM
CPR is for cardiac and respiratory arrest (meaning no breathing or heartbeat) not just for a heart attack. It really doesn't matter the cause of the cardiopulmonary arrest.....the emergency treatment is the same. Before administering CPR, you should open the airway (by tilting the head/chin upward) and check for breathing (place your ear over their mouth/nose and simultaneously look for chest rise/fall, listen for breath sounds and feel for them with your face). If there is none, give two breaths and then check for a pulse. If there is no pulse, that is when you begin chest compressions.
If you find someone on the floor and you are not sure what the cause of their collapse and lack of breathing/pulse is, you still should administer CPR. Often, chest compressions can cause a piece of food in the airway to become dislodged. If you suspect choking, you should always look into their mouth for obstructions (which can be manually extracted) before giving rescue breaths.
As far as getting blood/oxygen to the brain, that's a large part of CPR.....the compressions move blood through the body (and through the lungs) and the rescue breaths provide oxygen to the lungs, which is picked up by the blood. Most people assume since you are exhaling air into the patient, that you are giving them no oxygen....but the truth is that normal room air is about 21% oxygenated, our body uses approximately 4-5% of that oxygen, so the air you exhale is 16-17% oxygenated....more than enough to help someone while providing CPR.
As far as diabetic shock is concerned, people with low blood sugar will go into shock and coma, but will still have a weak pulse/shallow breathing. If they are unconscious, it's too late to administer food/sugar/oral glucose, etc (and do NOT give them insulin as it will make matters much worse!!) as they cannot swallow and will probably choke. Call 911 and administer CPR only if their breathing/pulse is not present.
Basically, CPR is emergency treatment for most any condition which causes the patient to become unconscious/not breathing/no heartbeat....not just a heart attack. If you find someone unconscious who is not breathing and does not have a pulse, call 911 and start CPR immediately! (preferrably assign someone else to call 911 while you start CPR to save time). The faster CPR is initiated, when it is needed, the better the potential outcomes for the patient are. If they have a pulse and are breathing, but still are unconscious and you cannot wake them, call 911 but do not do CPR.
By the looks of the video, they are training people on the 'lay-person's version of CPR.' Basically, no airway/breathing component, just compressions to keep the blood flowing to the heart/brain and other tissues. This, in itself is very important to prolong life and increase the success rate of survival (once EMS intervention can be provided). Keeping blood flowing through tissues helps get what little oxygen is in the body around to important parts while simultaneously removing waste products from those tissues (which would eventually cause tissue death if they built up).
Hope that helps!
RobG7aChattTN
10-02-2010, 06:27 AM
I've been trained in CPR and with my job and even though we get tested on it every year with a mini-refresher course we will be moving to the new method next year. What the studies have shown is that stopping the compressions to give breaths causes more harm than good. BUT...if two people are available (two man CPR) you still are better off having one person give breaths while another person does chest compressions.
Jack Daw
10-02-2010, 07:37 AM
Thanks for the info, Howard. I sure hope not to find myself in such a difficult position at some point in my life as to try to save somebody's life, but this might as well make the difference. Thanks.
For comparison, it is duty here to help somebody, if you see him collapse. Not helping would mean prosecution and jail. The doctrine says: you can't make it worse, when somebody's dying and there's no qualified help nearby.
What the studies have shown is that stopping the compressions to give breaths causes more harm than good. BUT...if two people are available (two man CPR) you still are better off having one person give breaths while another person does chest compressions.
Yup, that's what I've heard as well. If two people are available, breathing shouldn't be out of the question.
saltydad
10-02-2010, 04:56 PM
By the looks of the video, they are training people on the 'lay-person's version of CPR.' Basically, no airway/breathing component, just compressions to keep the blood flowing to the heart/brain and other tissues. This, in itself is very important to prolong life and increase the success rate of survival (once EMS intervention can be provided). Keeping blood flowing through tissues helps get what little oxygen is in the body around to important parts while simultaneously removing waste products from those tissues (which would eventually cause tissue death if they built up).
Exactly Bryan.
What the studies have shown is that stopping the compressions to give breaths causes more harm than good. BUT...if two people are available (two man CPR) you still are better off having one person give breaths while another person does chest compressions.
Also true,Rob.
Also, as maybe should be again emphasized, these new guidelines are for witnessed collapse. This type of patient should have a full component of oxygen in his/her system. If not witnessed, use the old rescue breathing and chest compression guidelines. Also, they don't apply to infants and kids, folks suffering drowning or near drowning, carbon monoxide inhalation, etc.
The big difference here, in addidtion to the technical changes, is that anyone can do the new procedure; you do not need to be certified. In the hospital, 2 person CPR is the start until ACLS (Advanced Care Life Support) is started. But this is for health care professionals, who are all at a minimum BCLS (Basic care Life Support) trained.
harveyc
10-02-2010, 10:25 PM
I gave my dad CPR once and realized then that I need to refresh myself on this. It ended up not being necessary. I didn't detect breathing or a pulse but he was in afib (around 400 beats/minute). I didn't know what was going on. I had just brought him home from the hospital an hour earlier after spending the night with his new pacemaker installed. I was just real scared and couldn't remember much of what I had been trained.
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