Realistically, people have been using the gift of life save others since biblical times. Early civilization was said to have used methods that, today, would be extremely unethical; like trying to resuscitate the body by using hot water or warm ashes or going as far as whipping the unconscious person.
Using chest compressions to jump start the heart was adopted in early 1900’s and some sixty years later cardiopulmonary resuscitation, CPR, became renowned as the way to possibly save a life in an out-of hospital setting.
According to the American Heart Association, the AHA, bystanders that obtain the knowledge of how to perform CPR on a person who has just suffered sudden cardiac arrest can double, or even triple, the victims’ chance of survival. As of April 2009 the AHA said they train more than 12 million people in CPR including the general public and health care professionals.
The AHA has not put an age restriction on when you can learn to perform CPR; they say the ability to perform CPR is based more on body strength. The AHA says that children as young as nine years old are able to retain the knowledge of how to perform CPR. The problem may not rest in the age of a person, however, if a person has the courage to watch a person collapse and, without deteriorating themselves, perform CPR on a stranger.
“If you see an adult suddenly collapse, call 911 and push hard and fast in the center of the chest. Don’t be afraid. Your actions can only help,” said the AHA.
Recently, the American Heart Association decide that the “P” in “CPR” will be dropped from the acronym and now we will refer to the resuscitation of the human life as CR. The P should have never been placed in the acronym though, considering that the actual spelling is cardiopulmonary, making the CP one word instead of two.
With the change of the acronym also comes the change of the guidelines. The new guidelines apply to adults, children, and infants but exclude newborns. The traditional way of CPR was A-B-C; now calling it CR we go to C-A-B. The traditional A-B-C way was airway, breathing, and compressions. The new C-A-B way is compressions, airway, and breathing.
"By starting with chest compressions, that's easy to remember, and for many victims that alone will be lifesaving," says Michael R. Sayre, MD, chair of the emergency cardiovascular care committee for the American Heart Association and co-author of the executive summary of the 2010 AHA guidelines for CPR and emergency cardiovascular care.
When someone is in a panic they may not be thinking clearly and may forget how to perform in an emergency. If you are in the same area as someone when they go into cardiac arrest here are seven steps for you to remember that could help you save someone else’s life:
1. Call 911 or ask someone else to do so. 2. Try to get the person to respond; if they don’t, roll the person on his or her back. 3. Start chest compressions. Place the heel of your hand on the center of the victim's chest. Put your other hand on top of the first with your fingers interlaced. 4. Press down so you compress the chest at least two inches in adults and children and one and a half inches in infants. 5. If you're been trained in CPR, you can now open the airway with a head tilt and chin lift. 6. Pinch closed the nose of the victim. Take a normal breath, cover the victim's mouth with yours to create an airtight seal, and then give two, one-second breaths as you watch for the chest to rise. 7. Continue compressions and breaths -- 30 compressions, two breaths -- until help arrives.
Hopefully no one will be in a position to have to perform CR on another human, but if you happen to be, remembering these simple steps will help aid you in saving someone’s life.
No comments:
Post a Comment