Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) — A Quick Guide

Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) skill is essential during the life-threatening emergency situations. CPR is performed to revive someone whose heart has stopped beating and has stopped breathing. The procedure ensures the restoration of oxygen supply to the brain. It applies to patients and victims fainted due to suffocation, neck or head injury, drowning, choking, heart attack, or cardiac arrest incidences etc. Everyone needs to acquire these life-saving skills through training, which is available even online.

When encountered with such an emergency, every second counts in saving a person’s life. Earlier administration of CPR increases the chances of survival of the person. It is essential to perform CPR within the first ten minutes after the incident occurs. If the brain oxygen supply is cut off for ten minutes, the person can have permanent brain damage with almost zero chances of survival. According to recent research, performing CPR increases the chances of survival for cardiac arrest patients by 40%. Important to note is that CPR only applies to unconscious persons who are not breathing.

What Are the Steps to Performing CPR?

1. Ensure that the person is in a safe environment. Secondly, you will need to check if the individual is conscious by tapping them on the shoulder and asking out loud, “Are you OK?” Then call for medical emergency assistance. If you are well trained, get an AED. There are online CPR certification programs offering the necessary skills in performing first aid.
2. The procedure for performing CPR takes a few steps. To easily remember, the term CAB is capped, which stands for compression, airway, and breathing. Lay the person on their back and kneel next to their shoulders and neck. Place the one hand on the individual’s chest right between the nipples. Place the other hand right on top of the first and interlock your fingers. Make sure that your hands are straight on the elbows and shoulders directly above.
3. Push on hard with the heels of your hands by the use of your upper body weight. Compress the victim’s chest at least 5 to 6 centimeters (which is 2 to 2.4 inches). Perform 100 to 120 compressions per minute. If you do not have a CPR certification, repeat the compressions till the person gains consciousness or until medical specialists arrive and take over. For a child and younger teenagers, you can use one hand to perform the compressions and make them at least 2 inches without exceeding 2.4 inches. In cases of babies 4 months and above, the chest compressions should not exceed 1.5 inches.
4. If you possess a certification, for instance, CPR online certification or related first aid certification, move on to the airway procedure. This procedure involves head and chin tilt, and it follows 30 chest compressions. Place one hand on the individual’s forehead, gently tilting the head back. Use your other hand to open the airway by tilting the person’s chin upwards.
5. You can perform rescue breathes on the mouth or nose, depending on the victim’s condition. In this position, with the airway open, pinch on the person’s nose and seal their mouth with your own. After the first one-second rescue breathe, check to see if the chest of the victim is moving. If the person doesn’t respond, give a second rescue breathe. Each two rescue breathes should be followed by 30 chest compressions. The rescue breathes should be gentle. For babies above four months, cover both their mouth and nose with your own and use your cheeks volume to deliver two (one-second) rescue breathes.
6. If trained on the use of AED (automated external defibrillator), apply on one shock and resume the CPR. If you lack the training or CPR certification, don’t use it.

Safety Precautions in CPR

• The resuscitation technique is not suitable for infants under 4 months of age.
• When giving the rescue breathe do not give too many and you should also avoid breathing too hard into the individual.
• Professional medical assistance should follow even after the patient is back to breathing normally.

When a life threatening emergency occurs, the difference between acting and doing nothing makes all the difference. Every person should make an effort and acquire different first aid skills. You never know when your skills may prove useful in saving someone’s life.

The above post originally published on American Training Association for CPR.