Posted on 10/18/2010 6:29:55 AM PDT by Immerito
DALLAS — New guidelines out Monday switch up the steps for CPR, telling rescuers to start with hard, fast chest presses before giving mouth-to-mouth.
The change puts "the simplest step first" for traditional CPR, said Dr. Michael Sayre, co-author of the guidelines issued by the American Heart Association.
In recent years, CPR guidance has been revised to put more emphasis on chest pushes for sudden cardiac arrest. In 2008, the heart group said untrained bystanders or those unwilling to do rescue breaths could do hands-only CPR until paramedics arrive or a defibrillator is used to restore a normal heart beat.
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...
Is it my imagination, or are they changing the recommended procedure about every 6 months or so? I think this is the third change I’ve seen in the recent past.
What they really need to do is to make it simple and stop confusing the public by changing it. BTW my husband had to give me CPR not long ago. He had taken it once over 30 years ago, but was still able to do it well enough. It’s not really rocket science, apparently.
I’ve noticed that as well.
My concern is that with frequent changes to the officially proper way to do CPR, people will decide to “leave it to the experts” and do nothing, even though they learned a legitimate method in the past.
I think the last change was in February, so it doesn’t look like you are off base.
The AHA...has to have something to do.
You are very lucky, FRiend.
Not only is CPR “not rocket science” it is also not very effective, usually. Studies show that even in a hospital setting, people requiring CPR do not survive to leave the hospital about 97% of the time.
CPR is normally only effective in “healthy” people whose heart/respiration has stopped due to external causes.
That’s what I think. I have taken it numerous times, back in the 1980s I had to have it because I was an aerobics instructor, then because I worked at a PT clinic and later because I taught elementary school. Over the years they kept changing it, and I started to feel very concerned that I would get confused, because face it, I’ve taken it many times thru the years but never actually used it.
My husband, however, took it one time (I dragged him years ago, because I joked to him that it would be FATE that because I had taken it and knew what to do that *I* would end up being the one who needed it and he wouldn’t know what to do. Well, guess what. ;) And, he said, in an emergency, he just did it. But, of course, he didn’t have all those years of changes in numbers etc to try to untangle. The one funny thing he said later was, “Guess what, when you do the breaths, the persons chest really does go up and down!” Like the dummy...hehehehe
Yes, that’s what I was taught too (when I took the class for professionals when I worked at a PT clinic—I don’t know that they ever told us that in the regular classes for the general public).
And I might have started back up on my own without CPR anyway, but who knows. I had no pulse and no heartbeat and he did it. I’m going to assume he saved my life. By the time the EMTs got here I was back, and it’s a good thing since our HOA gate was not working and they had a difficult time getting in, but that’s a whole OTHER story. Just another thing to hate about S FL.
Yeah....
I am a nurse in a hospital, and have performed CPR on countless people. Quite a few we have managed to get restarted (temporarily). Only 2 or three that I know of ever managed to leave the hospital.
The odds are even worse out in the world at large.
I lived in Hallendale/Hollywood for a couple of years. I’ll never go back...
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