According to the American Heart Association(AHA), more than 350,000 cardiac arrests occur
outside of the hospital each year. That comes out to be about 1 cardiac arrest every one and a
half minute. Seeing the prevalence of cardiac arrest, it would be helpful to have a tool to combat
this hindrance in society. We do it, it's called CardioPulmonary Resuscitation or CPR. When
CPR is performed on someone who goes into cardiac arrest outside of the hospital, they're
chance of survival can triple according to the AHA. This is why it is imperative to be familiar with
CPR as it can quite literally be the difference between someone living and dying. In my speech I
hope to familiarize you with CPR so you have a basic grasp of it.
So what is CPR exactly, CPR is the manual beating of someone's heart. According to John
Hopkins, Cardiac arrest is “when the heart stops beating suddenly. The lack of blood flow to the
brain and other organs can cause a person to lose consciousness, become disabled or die if not
treated immediately.” So when we do CPR, we are beating their heart for them, circulating their
blood to oxygenate their tissues. To recognize if someone is in cardiac arrest, they will be
unconscious then you will place two fingers on their carotid artery to feel for a pulse, while
simultaneously cheeking to hear for breathing. IF at this point both are absent, you will
immediately call 911, have someone get an AED, and start chest compressions.
For doing chest compressions, you want to lie them down on a hard flat surface (no beds), be
perpendicular to their sternum, place the heel of your hand on their sternum and overlap it with
the other hand. You want your shoulders inline with your arms to generate power. At this point
you are going to press down. According to the AHA, the depth should compress to about two
inches into their chest, then allowing for full recoil. THis is one compression. You'll want to do
these compressions at a rate of 100-120 per minute. This is the tempo of the song staying alive
by the Bee Gees.You'll do 5 cycles of 30 compressions with 2 respirations and switch with
someone if available. You'll continue doing chest compressions until either an AED arrives or
EMS arrives. For children older than 1 years old you'll only use one hand for compressions
.infants you'll only use two fingers. According to AHA,Both to a depth of ⅓ of their chest.
For the AED automatic external defibrillator, this is the device that could save someone's life.
Here at UMSL you can find them. It provides an electrical shock that changes the rhythm of
someone's heart. You'll start with placing the two pads on the right upper chest and the left
lower abdomen. Then you'll power on. From here on out its very plug and play as it will give you
exact instructions on what to do. Some considerations are that if they are wet you'll want to dry
them off to prevent bystanders from getting shocked, and if they are very hirsute then pad
application may be difficult. Within this first aid kit, you may find a one way valve for delivering
respirations. If it does not come with you aren't required to provide mouth to mouth, just do
continuous respirations.
Providing CPR to people that need it is a clinically proven way to give them better chances of
living. This presentation is not a supplement for a professionally taught class, as it gives you
hands-on instruction such as providing mannequins to practice on. This presentation will
hopefully be a call to action to show you how easy CPR is and the importance that it holds.