by James Hubbard, M.D., M.P.H.

Recently, I took my update on Advanced Cardiac Life Support.  What I learned that everyone should know is:

• If you find someone unconscious, shake the person to see if he or she responds.
• If not, listen for breathing, look to see if the chest is moving, and check for a pulse.  Do this quickly.
• If there is any question, call 911 or yell for someone to, and start chest compressions immediately.  It is the most important thing you can do to save a life.  Put the base of your palms together, place on the chest mid-between nipples, and push down firmly and quickly (one-and-a-half to two inches deep).
• Continue until the ambulance arrives.
• Don’t worry about the mouth-to-mouth if you’re not trained.  It’s the compressions that count most.

They stressed you should do the compressions at a rate of 100 per minute.  That is the most efficient and is important.  We used a metronome for guidance.  I expect you won’t have one when you need it.  I wondered how I will remember the rate in such a critical situation.  Then I read a post at the Health Blog in The Wall Street Journal.  Simplicity is genius.

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James Hubbard, M.D., M.P.H.

It has now become easier for someone with no training to attempt to revive a person whose heart has stopped. The American Heart Association recommends that, if you witness someone who becomes unconscious, do not perform mouth-to-mouth unless you have training. Rather you should:

1. Call or have someone call 911.

2. Put the person on a flat, firm surface and repeatedly compress the mid-chest firmly and quickly until the ambulance arrives. Those easy compressions you see on TV programs won’t get it. The compressions need to be hard so that you are compressing the heart to circulate blood throughout the body.

See more information on this at the AHA website link: http://handsonlycpr.eisenberginc.com/.

They recommend this change after studies have shown that it increases survival, over the first few minutes, about as much as using mouth-to-mouth with compressions. They hope more people will be willing to do the compressions. If you have proper training in cpr, then the recommendation is to use the mouth-to-mouth method, along with chest compressions, but at a ratio of 30 compressions to 2 breaths.

Be a hero. Save a life.

An article in the periodical, Circulation, has details.