- Legal Implications:
An emergency requiring CPR is naturally a life and death situation. Consequently, the legal implications of the actions by various parties during the situation are also serious. Although it is the duty of a CPR professional to act and tend to such an emergency, considerations such as consent, scope of practice, confidentiality, documentation and so on are equally important. The classes train participants on the legal considerations and proper behavior to be followed with the victim.
- Protection against pathogens
The professionals are trained on the various methods of preventing the spreading of blood-borne pathogens from the victim. It is possible that an emergency victim is a patient of blood-borne diseases such as Hepatitis B, Hepatitis C and HIV. Therefore a professional should be well versed with precautions to be taken against exposure to such pathogens and also know the steps to be taken if an exposure occurs.
- Primary Assessment
One of the first things a professional is required to do in an emergency is to assess the conditions of the victim. Unconsciousness, breathing, pulse and bleeding are to be checked. The accuracy of the assessment is critical, for the correct administration of life-saving techniques to the victim. Classes discuss in depth, the steps to be taken during assessment of victims in various emergencies such as spinal injuries, drowning, vomiting and so on.
- Respiratory Distress Situations
In the pandemonium that ensues an emergency, it is difficult to notice important clues on the conditions of the victim such as Hypoxia, Choking or slow breathing. Professionals are trained to look for a dozen symptoms of respiratory distress in a victim and the assistances they can extend the victim.
- Cardiac Emergencies
This could be a tricky subject for a non-professional since the symptoms of cardiac emergencies are easily confused with muscle spasms or indigestion. A late response in identification of and response to a heart attack could mean death to the victim. CPR Professionals are trained to recognize the various causes and symptoms of a heart attack so that they can tend to the victims.
- Administration of CPR
CPR is a fairly complex technique and requires considerable skill on part of a professional. Factors such as hand position, chest compression rate, ventilations and others, have to be properly monitored while administering a CPR. These factors also depend on the age of the victim.
- Two-Rescuer CPR
In this method, one of the rescuers gives chest compressions, while the other administers ventilations in a synchronized manner. Since those few precious moments of emergency can be a deciding factor between life and death for the victim, an extra pair of hands is an advantage. The CPR classes train the participants on how to administer a two-rescuer CPR in sync with each other.
8. Automated External Defibrillator (AED)
Most classes on AED may not cover the topic of AEDs for the simple reason that it is not something that is readily available to everybody in an emergency. They are available mostly with the Advanced Medical Personnel. However, some classes do cover AEDs in varying depths of detail. Typical knowledge explored in AED sessions include using an AED on adult, child and infant, precautions to be taken with AED and so on.
Most of the information on CPR is easily obtained online. But it is a fairly complex task and requires considerable skill on part of you to administering it. Therefore, it is your duty, as a responsible fellow human, to practice these skills in person in classes. What`s more, as someone with such life-skills, the people around you can depend on you to tend to them during an emergency.
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English: CPR training with Welch Allyn AED 20 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
While you’re at home, something happened and someone you care about suddenly went into cardiac arrest. You call 911, of course, but you are concerned that professional help just may not arrive in time. You know that when blood circulation or breathing stops, every passing second counts. You know that oxygen deprivation of the brain, if allowed to last from four to seven minutes, usually lead to permanent, irreversible brain damage and even death. You haven’t undergone any CPR training yet, so what do you do in this kind of emergency situation? According to the American Heart Association (AHA), you should perform hands-only or external cardiac compression CPR immediately. In fact, since you are untrained, this may be the only CPR technique that you can safely do on your own while waiting for the professional rescuers to get there and take over.
Here is how you can properly administer chest compression CPR:
1. Make sure the cardiac arrest victim is positioned on his or her back on a hard, flat and even surface, then kneel near his or her neck and shoulders.
2. Place the heel of one hand over the victim’s sternum or breastbone. Place the other hand on top of the first hand and interlace your fingers. If the victim is a baby or a toddler, use two fingers in place of your hands. Make sure that your shoulders are directly over your hands to give you sufficient leverage when you push.
3. Extend your elbows and use your weight to press down hard on the victim’s chest. Your aim is to compress the victim’s chest at least two inches inward. Release and allow the chest to recoil. Repeat the press-and-release cycle.
4. Press hard and fast non-stop at a rate of 100 compressions per minute. To help you stay in pace with the required compression rate per minute, the AHA recommends that you play the “Stayin’ Alive” Bee Gees song in our head so that you can push in sync with that song’s tempo of 103 beats per minute. If there is somebody else with you, try to change places every 2 to 3 minutes to prevent fatigue due to the fast pace of the chest compression CPR until medical help finally arrives, or until you see clear signs that the victim has recovered from the cardiac arrest.
When you administer chest compression CPR, you are from the outside basically just manually pumping oxygenated blood inside the victim’s chest from the heart to the aorta and from there to the brain and other vital organs. The aim is only to delay the onslaught of tissue damage until more advance first aid procedures can be administered by a trained professional rescue worker. By itself, there is no assurance that a timely hand-only CPR will save a victim from death or permanent brain damage. In cases where the cardiac arrest is caused by arrhythmia or rapid and irregular heart beats, chest compression CPR will only give a narrow window of opportunity until electric shock from an automated external defibrillator (AED) can be made applied by the 911 call responder to induce the heart to re-establish its normal beat.
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Here is how you can properly administer chest compression CPR:
1. Make sure the cardiac arrest victim is positioned on his or her back on a hard, flat and even surface, then kneel near his or her neck and shoulders.
2. Place the heel of one hand over the victim’s sternum or breastbone. Place the other hand on top of the first hand and interlace your fingers. If the victim is a baby or a toddler, use two fingers in place of your hands. Make sure that your shoulders are directly over your hands to give you sufficient leverage when you push.
3. Extend your elbows and use your weight to press down hard on the victim’s chest. Your aim is to compress the victim’s chest at least two inches inward. Release and allow the chest to recoil. Repeat the press-and-release cycle.
4. Press hard and fast non-stop at a rate of 100 compressions per minute. To help you stay in pace with the required compression rate per minute, the AHA recommends that you play the “Stayin’ Alive” Bee Gees song in our head so that you can push in sync with that song’s tempo of 103 beats per minute. If there is somebody else with you, try to change places every 2 to 3 minutes to prevent fatigue due to the fast pace of the chest compression CPR until medical help finally arrives, or until you see clear signs that the victim has recovered from the cardiac arrest.
When you administer chest compression CPR, you are from the outside basically just manually pumping oxygenated blood inside the victim’s chest from the heart to the aorta and from there to the brain and other vital organs. The aim is only to delay the onslaught of tissue damage until more advance first aid procedures can be administered by a trained professional rescue worker. By itself, there is no assurance that a timely hand-only CPR will save a victim from death or permanent brain damage. In cases where the cardiac arrest is caused by arrhythmia or rapid and irregular heart beats, chest compression CPR will only give a narrow window of opportunity until electric shock from an automated external defibrillator (AED) can be made applied by the 911 call responder to induce the heart to re-establish its normal beat.
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