IGX

Do you know CPR? I'm certified, my wife is certified and I'm going to have my daughters take the class too.

A couple days ago a young guy in my office had a heart attack and died. He was at most 40 years old and was in good shape/did a lot of regular exercise. I don't know the details yet or if CPR would have kept him alive (or if it was even used on him) but it does work... I highly recommend taking the course and encouraging friends/family to do the same (the life you save could be your own, as the cliche goes).

I'm feeling pretty bummed about it. He was an all around nice guy, always happy and smiling and he leaves behind a family with 2 kids in elementary school. Truly sucks...

Yes, and it has come in handy with having to give my daughter the baby Heimlich twice.

I have to be for work, firemedic.

From a professional standpoint if someone goes down in cardiac arrest and good CPR is not applied immediately, the likelihood of me bringing them back once I get there is a lot slimmer. Good quality compressions saves more folks than anything I got in my drug box.

I was certified from '87-'90. performed it several times. Once off duty and brought an older Asian woman back to life.

That was the old 5 compressions then 2 breaths. Breaths are out now aren't they?

Breaths are considered optional now. With the old recommendation (5:2 ratio) they apparently had people dying because folks were afraid of getting sick by putting their mouth on another person. The current recommendation is 30:2 ratio but, again, the breaths are optional. Compressions are #1.

I was certified, because I was a floor warden at my former place of employment and all floor wardens were trained and certified. It lapsed recently and I am going to re-up, for sure.

Just re certed a couple weeks ago - I have to have it for the track coach job.

I was in high school because I was a lifeguard, redid it 4-5 years ago through work. Email went out earlier this week about doing that again, I should probably do it.

CPR is a requirement of my job.

The Seattle area has a greatly superior survival rate. Citizen CPR is an important contributor.





From what I've read, the survival rate in some other major cities is in the single & low double digits.

Survival from out-of-hospital ventricular fibrillation cardiac arrest is extremely variable throughout the United States with high survival rates of 50% in Seattle and King County Washington, and low survival rates of 0% in Detroit, 3% in Chicago, 5% in New York, and 7% in Los Angeles.
http://www.mediconefoundation.org/our-p ... n-academy/

I was certified about 15 years ago. I know the recommendations have changed, but I don't think I need to re-certify. I'll just cut out the breaths.

I did take a baby first aid class a few years ago before my daughter was born. That came in handy once shortly after she started trying to eat solid food.

Herv100 wrote:Yes, and it has come in handy with having to give my daughter the baby Heimlich twice.

Us too.

I also revived an infant when I was a cop on 1st Avenue in East Harlem way back when.

My cert may be lapsed but I recerted 2 or 3 years ago. I can't really remember.

I just saw something recently that said, basically, just do the compressions but do them continuously and do them much harder than you think. Any recent cert peeps heard of this?

Colleague of mine (mid forties) keeled over from a heart attack playing basketball at the YMCA. Coincidentally there was a CPR class going on at the same time. Serendipitous for sure.

Less than a month ago and he's back at work.

My certification is probably getting close to lapsing. Dropping the mouth to mouth is a good idea. A fireman taught one of the classes I took. He outright stated that if he came across a person in need of cpr and didn't have a mask, he would not aid the person. Apparently the breaths often inflate the stomach and the victim will vomit into the mouth of the person applying cpr. The cpr instructor said that the risk of communicable disease was too much for him to risk without a mask because he had a family to take care of. Once you start giving cpr you are legally obligated continue until you collapse or medical help arrives. Getting bloody puke in one's mouth isn't a reason one can stop.

buckethead wrote:I just saw something recently that said, basically, just do the compressions but do them continuously and do them much harder than you think. Any recent cert peeps heard of this?

Here, let me google that for you

Friend of mine recently went through the worst possible nightmare CPR scenario...CPR on his own child. Failed, but started too late. I hope the effort helped him to come to grips in some way.

The section on the AED night be worthwhile if you haven't had the course lately. It real simple to use but simply knowing the location in the building etc can sure help you find it in an emergency. It's surprising how many places have them on site if you ask.

nafod wrote:

buckethead wrote:I just saw something recently that said, basically, just do the compressions but do them continuously and do them much harder than you think. Any recent cert peeps heard of this?

Here, let me google that for you

I was ready to laugh at that but i would have never guessed it to be "hands only cpr"

buckethead wrote:

nafod wrote:

buckethead wrote:I just saw something recently that said, basically, just do the compressions but do them continuously and do them much harder than you think. Any recent cert peeps heard of this?

Here, let me google that for you

I was ready to laugh at that but i would have never guessed it to be "hands only cpr"

My first google was "just compressions CPR"

We were told of it in our training, but they expect us to do 30/2 still.

I was certified 20/25 years ago for search and rescue. It was 5 to 1 then.

nafod wrote:Friend of mine recently went through the worst possible nightmare CPR scenario...CPR on his own child. Failed, but started too late. I hope the effort helped him to come to grips in some way.

Heartbreaking.

I've done the certification a few times but not for 10+ years. This is a nice reminder to look into it again.

Compression Only CPR is the way to go, unless you have a mask, or it is someone you would risk dying for. The victims often vomit due to the compressions. Ribs and Sternum also frequently get broken. Don’ t let that stop you from doing compressions. It is generally preferable to be alive with broken ribs than to be dead with un-broken ones.

Using an AED greatly increases the chances of successful revival.

"Compressions only" has more to do with sustained cardiac output during resuscitation than anything else if I understand correctly. The not filling the stomach with air and causing a pukey infectious mess (for rescuer and victim) is a big bonus though, too.
Like Dunn said, quality CPR saves more people than anything. In fact I've heard several times that trucks with basic EMTs have better survival rates than trucks with paramedics because basics just do CPR while medics focus on things like intubation which interrupt those quality compressions.