-
Should one use an adult CPR method or child CPR method on an unconscious or choking adolescent?
-
Suppose there are two adults in the same room, one knitting and the other reading. The reading adult suddenly collapses onto the ground unconscious. The other adult immediately assumes the suffering adult has cardiac arrest and needs immediate medical care. So, the healthy adult (that used to be knitting) checks the scene for hazards, call 911 on his cell phone or grab the closest phone, and begin performing CPR. Since this is an adult, not a child, there are no 2 initial rescue breaths; however, after doing 30 compressions, the healthy adult must give 2 rescue breaths before resuming compressions again. If this healthy adult does not have a breathing barrier, then does this guy have to use his mouth over the other person’s mouth, since it is his responsibility that he must save the dying person’s life? What are the risks of touching another person’s mouth with one’s bare mouth? Does this mean it is important to carry a breathing barrier at all times?
-
What happens if a person lives alone and suddenly falls due to cardiac arrest? Is he doomed? Does this mean it is important to carry a cell phone at all times?
1.Generally, under 12 y.o, use child CPR.
If choking, apply the Heimlich Maneuver, not CPR.
- First determine if the victim’s heart has stopped before doing CPR.
The new method is to not use rescue breathing. There’s enough oxygen in the blood for several minutes. Also, chest compressions do move some air.
- Cardiac arrest=dead. Bereft of life. This is an ex-person.
Reply to 2: How old is the ‘new method’? I am taking a course in Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation right now, and there is indeed rescue breathing. Are you sure you got the facts right? :dubious:
Reply to 3: I have asked my instructor the same question, and he told me that a person feeling pain in the chest as he falls down should quickly pull out his cell phone and dial 911. Then when he has fallen, the EMT can come and rescue him.
From the Mayo Clinic —> Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR): First aid - Mayo Clinic
However, the best is learning CPR yourself. I suggest contacting the Red Cross and/or Heart Association, in your local area.
If you ever perform CPR, the life you save will be far closer than you will initially ever know. Trust me on this. I spent 20 years as an Instructor, followed by as an Instructor-Trainer and lastly as a Supervisory Instructor-Trainer in CPR, among other emergency medicine activities.
Just got re-certified last year.
For # 3 , you did specify cardiac arrest. The heart is stopped, the person is dead.
The new (as of…2010, I think) AHA CPR standards for non-healthcare providers break down into three categories:
- Untrained bystanders: compression-only. Why? Because studies have found bystanders are less likely to do anything if they think that they’ll be expected to put their mouth on a stranger’s. Statistically, bystander CPR isn’t going to do a whole lot anyway, and the minimal oxygenation you’d get from rescue breaths isn’t worth the trade-off of potentially not getting compressions.
- Trained bystanders: you’ve taken a class, so you’re familiar with what to do (ie, how to open the airway). This standard includes rescue breathing.
Compressions are the really, really important part, because you’ve already got oxygen in your blood. Exhaled air from mouth-to-mouth will provide about 16% oxygen, which isn’t a whole lot, and not all of that is going to even end up in the lungs. So is it better than nothing? Yes. Is it far more important to keep what oxygen the body already has circulating to the brain and heart? Yes. People are more likely to do CPR without breaths - great, do compression-only CPR.
All of the other responses are correct, so I won’t pile on. I will add that if you have to do CPR, make sure the patient is on the floor or other HARD surface, and not on a comfy bed or couch. More than once I’ve arrived on scene to find bystanders doing untrained CPR on someone, and all they’re doing is pushing them down into the sofa or mattress. No actual chest compressions were being made, and all 3 patients were DOA.
Just curious, how long does it take for you to loose consciousness if your heart stops? Long enough to call for help (if you noticed it right away, although you probably wouldn’t)? Of course, if you were alone, even if you managed to call 911 and they came as fast as they could, they’d have only minutes to arrive (the prognosis isn’t that good in any case).
About 15 seconds to lose consciousness; 5 minutes to brain death.
OK. From my troop’s emergency manager/certified CPR trainer as of last November (when we did Emergency Preparedness).
There are currently two standards for CPR, one with the rescue breaths and one without. The reason for the dichotomy is because CPR theory is currently in a transition phase. Under the new standard, rescue breaths are not needed thus the whole mouth-barrier thing is outdated.
But if she’s cute . . .
Immediate screw up. The knitter never checked breating or circulation.
Because of the force needed to compress the ribcage, I believe it would be immpossible to give yourself CPR.
And remember the whole purpose of CPR is to take a dead (as is not alive) person and keep their brain oxygenated until help arrive. Only about 10% of people given CPR survive.
Very true (in addition to the fact that if you are in a state where CPR will be beneficial, it’s impossible for you to do anything). It’s been found that about a third of the time, CPR results in cracked ribs.
If you find yourself needing to perform CPR, hearing/feeling ribs break should in no way deter you. It means you’re doing good. And in the grand scheme of things, there’ll be one of two outcomes: the patient will stay dead (in which case he doesn’t care about his ribs), or the patient will recover (in which case he’s going to feel pretty awful anyway but be not-dead, so I don’t imagine he’ll much care about his ribs).
FIRST! And I mean FIRST is the ABC’s. Fuck “rescue breaths”. ABC’s. I can’t say that enough.
A: Airway. Before you give CPR, check to make sure the patient does not have something lodged in their throat. Do not force air there down there by putting your mouth over his or hers.
B: Breathing: If the patient is breathing, do NOT give CPR. Look at the chest and listen for breathing. Don’t worry about checking for a pulse, check for breathing. This one is important. If he’s breathing, he has a pulse - even if you can’t find it.
C: Circulation: If you have checked down to here, now it’s CPR time. The data on whether you should do breathing and chest compressions or chest compressions only is a little iffy, but I tend to gravitate to the compression only side of the argument. Compressing the chest does pump the lungs after all. (not deeply, but hey, it’s something, and blowing CO2 down there might not help much.)
-Monkey, ex lifeguard, current nursing student.
There’s this activity called “kissing” you might have heard of. You may want to sit down for this, but it often involves direct bare mouth-to-mouth contact. Shocking, no? But the mortality rate from it is very low.
It is low, but it is possible to contract various diseases through bodily fluids like saliva. I’ve given CPR without a barrier but every course I’ve taken talks about the risks. But I don’t know many people who were trained in F/A or CPR that would hesitate.
I do however carry rubber gloves and would not hesitate to delay F/A until I had a chance to put them on if someone was bleeding.
Actually, the new guidelines call for compressions to trump airway, the new mnemonic is CAB.
cite?
Actually, I looked it up, and I sort of agree with CAB, so I don’t need a site. But I only sort of agree with it. That’s just me, though.
Well, I concur with you actually, context matters.
You know that studies show that 100% of persons who have been involved in this “kissing” activity have eventually died. So be careful.
As for a cite, look at my post. The info on compressions only is from a certified Red Cross trainer.
When I first read this, I missed the “t” and thought it was
You were almost in the running for quote of the month 