New CPR is spelled C-A-B

cnn ^ | 10/18/10 | Caleb Hellerman,

[Nachum]

(CNN) -- It was 5:16 a.m. when the call came in to a 911 dispatcher in Madison, Wisconsin. The story, from Cathy Silver, came out staccato: Cathy's husband, Jim, was gagging, gasping for air. A nurse at the University of Wisconsin Hospital, Cathy could see that her husband, the father of four grown children, was in cardiac arrest.

Though trained in CPR, Cathy was flustered. "I can't do the breaths!" she shouted. Nevermind, said the dispatcher. Get over him, press on his the chest, circulate the blood. Help would be there soon.

Four minutes later, a Madison police officer arrived and took over. More chest compressions, still no breaths. By the time paramedics arrived, it was nearly 10 minutes since Jim had stopped breathing.

Fifty frantic minutes later, after more than a dozen electric shocks to the heart, seven injections of epinephrine, and one wild ambulance ride, Jim's heart regained a stable beat. A week later, he was up and talking in his hospital bed.

[bigbob]

The Bee Gees thing is pretty wild, but easy enough to remember. Who can ever get that tune purged from their head?

Thanks.

[ClearCase_guy]

They keep saying it’s C-A-B, and I can figure out that the “C” is either “chest” or “compression”. Fine. For the life of me, and can’t see where they explain the “A” or “B”.

[UCFRoadWarrior]

This has been in the works for a few years....doing away with the “breaths” during CPR. The chest compressions are well enough to circulate blood and get oxygen to the brain. And, when you breathe into someone during CPR...you put in a lot of CO2 instead of oxygen

First Responder trained....and not having to do the breaths makes CPR much easier....and allows life-saving for those with damage to their pulmonary syatem

[doc11355]

Staying Alive

[SpinnerWebb]

Airway
Breathing
Circulation

Now changed to

Circulation
Airway
Breathing

... in order of importance to restore on an unconscious patient.

[VeniVidiVici]

The Bee Gees thing is pretty wild, but easy enough to remember. Who can ever get that tune purged from their head?

Exactly.

Make sure you watch this demonstration. The picture takes a few seconds to stabilize.

[ClearCase_guy]

Thanks. In my opinion the journalist did not transmit this information effectively.

[Maverick68]

bump

[Rio]

Has the Red Cross changed their standards yet?

[2Jedismom]

My husband actually took part in this type of resuscitation. He was playing basketball with a guy that just dropped on the court and one of the other players started CPR while my husband called 911. The 911 operator told him to tell the guy doing CPR to just do the compressions, my husband instructed the guy doing CPR on what to do via the 911 operator.

This happened almost 2 years ago. The guy’s fine today because of it.

[ArmstedFragg]

With my luck, I’ll get a rescuer who wasn’t alive in the disco era.

“No, No, that’s Manilow... faster!”

[Jeff Winston]

For the less optimistic, another song that has the proper tempo is Queen's Another One Bites The Dust.

[Atlas Sneezed]

I think the key is that the chest compressions also cause breathing to oxygenate the blood, by forcing air out of the lungs, which refill on each upstroke.