To my knowledge you don’t change how you perform CPR if you are doing it right, you are going to hurt him, its just that simple. Compressions done properly are going to break and crack ribs.
Best advice I would say is invest in a portable AED if you are that worried and keep it in your car with your first aid kit. Yes, its always possible you won’t be near your car when you need it, but still. Standard CPR has a reported is a 5-10% success rate, but honestly I think the rate is far below that. AED’s have a much higher success rate.
The important thing if you are going to do CPR is to make sure you are actually compressing the heart muscle, and that takes some serious effort. Don’t stop or hesitate because you are afraid to hurt your husband, its better he live and have to deal with healing rib fractures, than you not applying enough pressure and not stimulating blood flow.
Here is a quote from an article about the 2006 updates to CRP:
1. Effective Chest Compressions
Effective chest compressions improve blood flow, which increases the chance of survival. The new guidelines encourage rescuers to “push hard and push fast” at a rate of about 100 compressions per minute for all victims except newborns, without interruption. The rescuer should allow the chest to recoil after each compression.
Studies of actual resuscitation show that half of chest compressions given by professional rescuers are too shallow and that the compressions are interrupted too often. The new guidelines strongly emphasize the importance of high-quality chest compressions during CPR.
Thanks so much for your response, it really helped relieve some of my anxiety. I will have to check on AED units. We live out in the country, so even they are expensive, it would be worth it. I am sure his doctor would write him a prescription for one, they are already talking about putting him on disability for his heart/blood pressure issues and he is only 55 y/o. Heart problems run in his family, his Dad died at 45 y/o from a heart attack.