Hands-only CPR: A lifesaving technique within your reach

It’s terrible to even imagine, but what would you do if you saw someone suddenly collapse and stop breathing? Chances are the person has experienced cardiac arrest, an electrical malfunction that causes the heart to beat rapidly and chaotically — or to stop beating altogether. After calling 911, you should begin hands-only cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), which does not involve the mouth-to-mouth breathing used in standard CPR. For more than a decade, national guidelines have recommended the simpler, hands-only version of CPR for cardiac arrests that occur outside a hospital. Now, a large Swedish study confirms that just like standard CPR, hands-only CPR doubles a person’s odds of surviving at least 30 days after cardiac arrest. Researchers analyzed data from more than 30,000 cases of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest from 2000 to 2017, when hands-only CPR was gradually adopted into Sweden’s CPR guidelines. Hands-only CPR use rose sixfold over the course of the study. Overcoming barriers “We need to do a better job encouraging people to perform bystander CPR, and learning this simpler version seems to help,” says Dr. Charles Pozner, associate professor of emergency medicine at Harvard-affiliated Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Hands-only CPR eliminates the fear of communicable diseases, one of the main reasons people say they’d hesitate to perform CPR. Another barrier people cite is fear of injuring the person — especially by doing compressions incorrectl...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Emergency Planning First Aid Health Source Type: blogs