The American Heart Association CPR Training Program empowers bystanders to give lifesaving assistance to a nonresponsive victim. Training is simple and readily available, and it has proved to improve survival rates.
Why Learn CPR
Seventy five to eighty percent of all out-of-hospital instances of cardiac arrest happen in the home, according to the American Heart Association. It is likely that you will witness a heart attack in a family member or close friend in your lifetime.
Rapid bystander intervention CPR can be the difference between life and death. Cardio Pulmonary Resuscitation, CPR, can buy precious time for the victim until advanced life support measures by skilled paramedics is available.
Immediate CPR can save not only victims of heart attacks, but also those whose heart has stopped due to drowning, electrocution, suffocation and drug overdose. The sooner CPR is started, the greater the chances for survival.
Push Hard and Push Fast
The chance for survival for a cardiac arrest victim is improved by uninterrupted chest compressions. Vital organs in the unresponsive victim need as much blood flow as possible. This won't happen with slow, shallow chest compressions. Each time you stop compression, the blood flow stops, and after you begin again, it takes a few compressions to be as effective as needed.
The Association recommends about 100 compressions per minute to all unresponsive victims except infants. After each compression, let the chest return to its normal position. Blood flow stops each time you stop chest compression, so the AHA urges the rescuer to try to limit interruptions.
The ideal compression to ventilation ratio has not yet been identified. But blood flow to the heart brain and vital organs by longer, uninterrupted chest compressions advances survival rate.
2005 AHA Guideline Changes
The American Heart Association made major changes to the guidelines for CPR in 2005 to simplify information so that rescuers could remember and perform them better. These changes were made because it has been agreed that less ventilation is needed during CPR because blood flow to the patient's lungs is less than normal. Less rescue breaths will reduce interruptions in chest compressions.
• If you find yourself alone with a child or infant who is unresponsive, 5 cycles of compression and ventilations are suggested before leaving the child to call 911
• Use the head tilt-chin lift instead of a jaw thrust to open the airway of the injured victim
• In adult victims, take 5 to 10 seconds to check for normal breathing
• In an infant or child, take no more than 10 seconds to check for the absence of breathing
• Before giving a rescue breath, take a normal breath, over one second. Your breath should make the victims chest rise. If not, before you give the second breath, you should perform the tilt-chest lift again
• After 2 rescue breaths, you should immediately begin the cycle of compressions and rescue breaths in the 30 chest compressions to 2 rescue breath ratio
• You should compress with two fingers on an infant. Find the breastbone and apply compressions just below the nipple line
• Compress at the nipple line, with 1 or 2 hands for a child victim
Automated External Defibrillator
CPR provides temporary artificial breathing and circulation that could sustain a victim until help arrives. If the victim has not responded after 10 minutes, however, the chances of resuscitation are near zero.
Automated External Defibrillators or "AEDs" can interpret a person's heart rhythm and automatically deliver a defibrillation shock with minimal input from the operator. Since introduced in the 1980s the availability of this device to rescue personnel proved to improve survival rate of cardiac arrest victims. They were next given to police officers, who according to studies were usually the first to arrive on the scene, making the 10-minute time frame for lifesaving defibrillation more achievable.
Public Access Defibrillation, or "PAD," was introduced as it was realized that AEDs were so easy to use. Although access to their use is determined by state regulations, AEDs are now commonly found in airports, on airplanes, and in public buildings, shopping malls, and even gambling casinos.
American Heart Association CPR Training
You can find a course offered by the Emergency Cardiovascular Programs Department of the American Heart Association online at http://americanheart.org.
These courses include CPR for Friends and Family, Heartsaver First Aid, CPR and the Heartsaver AED courses. You will learn techniques of adult CPR and use Automated External Defibrillator (AED).
Tags: American Heart, American Heart Association, Heart Association, chest compressions, blood flow, Association Training, Automated External