Safety Facts of CPR

Purpose

• The main purpose of CPR is to prevent sudden cardiac arrest, which is a leading cause of death within both the United States and Canada--responsible for over 300,000 deaths each year in both countries.
  
  

Operation

• CPR provides oxygenated blood flow to a person that would otherwise not be breathing. When the heart stops, the brain will begin to deteriorate within 5 minutes and will be completely dysfunctional within 10 minutes due to lack of blood flow. The goal is to compress the chest and provide mouth-to-mouth resuscitation until medical help can arrive on the scene.
  
  

Good Samaritan Laws

• Although an emergency situation warrants help, there are some unusual side effects in some rare circumstances. Many "Good Samaritan" laws are in place that help to encourage people to help others that are in dire circumstances. They promote those that have the ability to--but might be timid to help others--to go ahead and help them. It also protects people that do help from being potentially sued, in case something goes wrong.
  
  

Modern Additions

• Although the basis of CPR has remained relatively unchanged, the guidelines for how to perform it are often changed based on new scientific evidence. The American Heart Association has added new guidelines for CPR that focus more on chest compression, while maintaining less interruption for ventilation. The ratio for CPR is 30 compressions for every 2 breaths.
  
  

CPR Procedure

• There are generally considered to be four basic steps of CPR. The starting step is to position the person flat on their back and to tilt the head back while listening for breathing, followed by pinching the nose, while giving the person two breaths to make the chest rise--assuming that the person is not breathing. The hand is then placed on the center of the chest with the elbows in a locked position. Press until there is resistance and then let the chest rise back up. This should be done with 30 compressions for ever two breaths until medical help arrives.
  
  

Children and Babies

• For children, all the steps remain the same, except that one hand is supposed to be used rather than two. For babies, you are supposed to follow the same instructions, but compress the chest using two fingers.