VIDEO HANDS ONLY CPR HEART ASSOCIATION SAYS IF BYSTANDER NOT TRAINED OR NOT CONFIDENT USE HANDS ONLY CPR FOR CARDIAC ARREST SOME EXCEPTIONS

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The Heart Association say that "even people without CPR training can save the life of an adult whose heart stops,(cardiac arrest) and the American Heart Association has issued an advisory" called Hands-Only (Compression-Only) Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation, "urging everyone,trained or not, to act immediately in such an emergency" when the heart stops . The procedure is simple: if you see an adult collapse after having a heart attack, immediately call 911 and then push hard and fast in the middle of the chest continuously, until emergency medical personnel arrive or an external defibrillator can be used". You should read the Heart Association guidelines.





Let's face it many people faced with an adult who collapses from a heart problem and has no pulse (cardiac arrest) are gripped by sheer panic. What to do? Time is critical. If the heart doesn't circulate the blood damage results. Many airports and public places have external automatic defibrillators which anyone trained or not can use to restart the heart with an electric shock but what if one is not available? Time is crucial. You call 911 and then what? CPR cardiopulmonary resuscitation is recommended to get the blood circulating. But most people either don't know CPR or find it too hard to understand. How fast do you push on the chest? When do you breathe in the mouth. Plus many people don't like the idea of breathing in a stranger's mouth.




Heart Association Advertisement About Hands Only CPR Click the Arrow to Start





"Dr. Michael R. Sayre, the lead author of the recommendations, said in a telephone interview that the ideal would be 100 pushes a minute with enough force to make the chest go down two inches, but, he added, “there is no need to use a metronome and a ruler.” Dr. Sayre is an associate professor of emergency medicine at Ohio State University. CPR, or cardiopulmonary resuscitation, can more than double the survival rate in cardiac arrest, but only about a third of people who collapse get CPR from bystanders. The advice does not apply to cardiac arrest in children, or that due to drowning or drug overdose, which usually require rescue breathing. Nor does it apply when the bystander does not see the collapse, since it might not have been cardiac arrest.









But the exceptions, Dr. Sayre said, are only about a quarter of all cardiac arrests. “We want people to act no matter what,” he said, “and one of the reasons it’s important to take a CPR class is because of this other 25 percent. “But doing chest compressions alone in these situations is better than doing nothing,” he said. “Even for children, the procedure would be the same.”

Hands Only CPR Consumer Website from Heart Association (Find the video here)

CPR Can Help, Even With No Training



The Heart Association report is called Hands-Only (Compression-Only) Cardiopulmonary
Resuscitation: A Call to Action for Bystander Response to Adults Who Experience Out-of-Hospital Sudden Cardiac Arrest: A Science Advisory for the Public From the American Heart Association. Here is part of what they say:




All victims of cardiac arrest should receive, at a minimum,
high-quality chest compressions (ie, chest compressions of
adequate rate and depth with minimal interruptions). To
support that goal and save more lives, the AHA ECC
Committee recommends the following.
When an adult suddenly collapses, trained or untrained
bystanders should—at a minimum—activate their community
emergency medical response system (eg, call 911) and
provide high-quality chest compressions by pushing hard and
fast in the center of the chest, minimizing interruptions (Class I).


● If a bystander is not trained in CPR, then the bystander
should provide hands-only CPR (Class IIa). The rescuer
should continue hands-only CPR until an automated external
defibrillator arrives and is ready for use or EMS
providers take over care of the victim.


● If a bystander was previously trained in CPR and is
confident in his or her ability to provide rescue breaths
with minimal interruptions in chest compressions, then the
bystander should provide either conventional CPR using a
30:2 compression-to-ventilation ratio (Class IIa) or handsonly
CPR (Class IIa). The rescuer should continue CPR
until an automated external defibrillator arrives and is
ready for use or EMS providers take over care of the
victim.


● If the bystander was previously trained in CPR but is not
confident in his or her ability to provide conventional CPR
including high-quality chest compressions (ie, compressions
of adequate rate and depth with minimal interruptions)
with rescue breaths, then the bystander should give
hands-only CPR (Class IIa). The rescuer should continue
hands-only CPR until an automated external defibrillator
arrives and is ready for use or EMS providers take over the
care of the victim.

Read and download the pdf document Hands-Only (Compression-Only) Cardiopulmonary
Resuscitation: A Call to Action for Bystander Response to Adults Who Experience Out-of-Hospital Sudden Cardiac Arrest