Where do you stand on bystander CPR?

Follow me on Twitter @RobShmerling A recent survey confirmed what many have suspected: if you collapsed, there’s a good chance that the average bystander would not be prepared to perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). And if they tried to revive you, there’s an even better chance they wouldn’t do it correctly. Of course, there is a certain circularity to this — if you don’t know how to perform CPR, or if you know how but aren’t sure you’ll perform it correctly, you’ll be less likely to try. So why are so few prepared? The list of reasons is long, including: no prior instruction or certification fear of doing it wrong or being blamed for causing more harm than good waiting for someone else (who “knows what they’re doing”) to do it little faith in the effectiveness of CPR the victim might be sick with something the rescuer could catch the “ick factor,” that is, a potential rescuer is put off by the thought of having mouth-to-mouth contact with a stranger (even though current guidelines do not recommend mouth-to-mouth resuscitation). A new study suggests there’s room for improvement A new survey performed by the Cleveland Clinic asked 1,000 people about CPR. It also asked about symptoms of stroke and heart attack, since these are conditions for which bystander help can make a big difference. The results were disappointing: Only 54% reported knowing how to perform CPR. While this is actually more than I would have predicted, it likely represen...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: First Aid Health Heart Health Source Type: blogs