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The difference between your doing something and doing nothing could be someone's life
WOULD you be able to save a life – or the life of your child – if you found them unresponsive?
The basics of CPR can make a life-or-death difference in this situation, and even a basic knowledge of the procedure can be useful.
CPR – or cardiopulmonary resuscitation, to be exact – is the lifesaving technique used to manually restore blood and oxygen to the vital organs, particularly the heart and brain.
When the heart stops, the lack of oxygenated blood can cause brain damage in only a few minutes. A person may die within eight to 10 minutes.
It’s far better to do something than to do nothing at all if you’re fearful that your knowledge or abilities aren’t 100 percent complete.
Remember, the difference between your doing something and doing nothing could be someone’s life.
Assisting an adult
1 Call
Check the victim for unresponsiveness.
If the person is not responsive and not breathing or not breathing normally. Call emergency services and return to the victim.
f possible bring the phone next to the person and place on speaker mode.
In most situations the emergency dispatcher can assist you with verbal CPR instructions.
2 Pump
If the victim is still not breathing normally, coughing or moving, begin chest compressions.
Push down in the center of the chest thirty times.
Pump hard and fast at the rate of 100-120/minute, faster than once per second.
3 Blow
Tilt the head back and lift the chin.
Pinch nose and cover the mouth with yours and blow until you see the chest rise.
Give two breaths. Each breath should take one second.
4 Continue
Continue with thirty pumps and two breaths until help arrived.
Breathe for your baby
Cover the baby’s mouth and nose with your mouth.
Prepare to give two rescue breaths.
Use the strength of your cheeks to deliver gentle puffs of air (instead of deep breaths from your lungs) to slowly breathe into the baby’s mouth one time, taking one second for the breath.
Watch to see if the baby’s chest rises.
If it does, give a second rescue breath.
If the chest does not rise, repeat the head-tilt, chin-lift maneuver and then give the second breath.
If the baby’s chest still doesn’t rise, examine the mouth to make sure no foreign material is inside.
If an object is seen, sweep it out with your finger.
If the airway seems blocked, perform first aid for a choking baby.
Give two breaths after every 30 chest compressions.
Perform CPR for about two minutes before calling for help unless someone else can make the call while you attend to the baby.
Continue CPR until you see signs of life or until medical personnel arrive.
Call for change
Meanwhile, the CEO of the NSRI (National Sea Rescue Institute) has called for the SA school curriculum to be changed, and to include basic CPR.
‘Everybody should know how to do CPR,’ Dr Cleeve Robertson.
‘First Aid is currently included in the Grade 6 school curriculum – but how to do CPR is not. This must be changed.
Every child coming out of a South African school should know how to call an ambulance and how to do CPR,’ he said.
Kathy Bodmer of the Resuscitation Council, agrees.
‘We need to strengthen the ‘chain of survival’ skills in our communities, and the only chance of survival a victim has, is if someone knows how to call for an ambulance perform basic CPR, until a more advanced healthcare provider arrives,’ she said.
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