There are many different situations when CPR can potentially save a person’s life or minimize brain damage and other health problems. Though use of CPR is not always enough to guarantee a person’s survival, when used correctly, it can dramatically increase their chances. CPR training in NJ can help you learn how to identify these life-threatening situations and how to immediately respond. With CPR training in NJ, you’ll have to tools to potentially save the life of a friend, coworker, family member, or stranger.

Situations to Use CPR

When you see someone unconscious or collapsed on the ground, they may need CPR and other forms of assistance. CPR, also known as cardio pulmonary resuscitation, can help restore breathing and beating of the person’s heart and save their life. Individuals who complete AED and CPR training in NJ are better prepared to identify people who might need this type of help.

Some situations that may require CPR include drowning, suffocation, heart attack, allergic reaction, choking, and electric shock. One of the most common situations when CPR is needed is during sudden cardiac arrest. This occurs when a person’s heart suddenly stops beating. This is why it’s so important to check breathing and heartbeat when you encounter someone who looks unconscious.

Cardiac arrest typically happens after a person experiences an especially long or severe type of heart arrhythmia, which is when the heart beats in an irregular rhythm or too slowly or quickly. Anyone could have minor cases of arrhythmia, but some people experience arrhythmia more often or have more serious cases of arrhythmia, and this makes sudden cardiac arrest more likely. Some common causes of arrhythmia include:

Coronary Heart Disease

If you have coronary heart disease, your arteries slowly clog with cholesterol and other deposits. This reduces the amount of blood that can flow to your heart and affects the ability of your heart to beat at a proper rhythm.

Heart Attack

During a heart attack, a person may experience ventricular fibrillation, which is when the lower chambers of the heart wither but do not contract effectively. This is one of the most common causes of heart attacks and one of the most common reasons why people need CPR or AED. CPR training in NJ can teach you how to recognize when this is happening and help you provide treatment quickly and correctly.

Congenital Heart Disease

Some people are born with abnormalities in their heart, and this can make the risk of heart attack and arrhythmia higher. This can even affect adolescents and children and cause them to experience sudden cardiac arrest. When providing CPR to younger victims, it’s very important that the person understand what they are doing. Courses that provide CPR training in NJ teach participants how to provide CPR to different ages, so that you are always prepared during an emergency.

Problems With the Electrical System

Every person’s heart is controlled by electrical signals. These electrical signals tell the heart when to contract, how fast to contract, and how much to contract. When the electrical system is working correctly, the heart beats a normal rhythm, but sometimes the electrical systems stops working the way it’s supposed to. These types of problems are known as primary heart abnormalities. Though rare, there are some conditions that can cause these types of abnormalities such as long QT syndrome and Brugada’s syndrome.

These are only a few of the possible causes of arrhythmia and sudden cardiac arrest. There are many different reasons why a person may suddenly require medical attention, and that’s why CPR training in NJ is so important. Contact us to learn more about our programs and services.

Sources:

http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/sudden-cardiac-arrest/basics/causes/con-20042982

You can’t tell who might have heart disease. You can’t tell who might need CPR – whether it’s a powerful young athlete or the mom sitting next to you in the stands.

One step we can take, as we mourn for this kind and gifted young man, is to learn CPR. Maybe Grand Rapids could become Heart City. That would be just as brag-worthy as our Beer City USA title.

GET TRAINING
Fischer had hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, a condition that accounts for about a third of the sudden cardiac deaths in young athletes.

In the vast majority of cases, a person suffering a sudden cardiac arrest dies before reaching the hospital. Getting CPR immediately can double or triple the chance of survival, according to the American Heart Association.

Fischer died in his sleep, with no witnesses to administer CPR. But if you were with a teenager – or a parent or grandparent – whose heart suddenly stopped beating, would you know what to do?

I didn’t – until recently. A couple of weeks ago, I was invited to take a CPR certification class by Life EMS Ambulance.

It was both easier and harder than I expected.

The easy part was the time involved. In less than two hours, I learned the basics of cardiopulmonary resuscitation – when it is needed, how to perform chest compressions to keep blood pumping through the body, and how to use an automated electronic defibrillator.

The hard part was applying enough pressure to get the “clicking sound” from the CPR mannequin, Annie, that let me know I had pressed down the recommended 2 inches.

“Lock your elbows,” advised John Schupra, director of the education center at Life EMS. That gave me the extra boost to hear that clicking sound – most of the time, anyway.

Applying compressions fast enough –at the rate of 100 per minute – also was tricky. Schupra suggested keeping to the beat of the song “Staying Alive.” But even in that practice situation, my mind had trouble remembering that beat of that often-played disco tune.

The heart association has online videos that teach hands-only CPR, and it’s a great idea to watch them. Hands-only CPR is CPR without the mouth-to-mouth breaths. The basic instruction is: Call 911 and push hard and fast in the center of the chest.

But if possible, take a class that includes hands-on practice.

It’s tough to imagine the need to use CPR. I suspect that might be one reason people tend to shy away from learning it, if only subconsciously. Some small corner of our mind reasons: If we don’t think about bad things happening, they won’t.

Skills you never hope to use

I’m sure Tony Elliott was glad he learned CPR in a mandatory class for his job. When his 24-year-old girlfriend, Jennifer DenBoer, went into cardiac arrest while sitting on the couch watching TV a year ago, he moved fast. He called 911 on speaker phone while starting chest compressions. DenBoer, of Kentwood, became one of the rare, lucky survivors.

And Amy Thompson Swager, a mother of seven from Climax, is grateful her sister was able to recall training she had learned as a Girl Scout 30 years earlier. Her sister saved her life by performing CPR when Swager’s heart stopped beating one day in 2008.

“She looked down at me and thought, ‘Oh, God! I’m going to watch her die!’ Of all the things I am thankful for regarding my (sudden cardiac arrest), I am so grateful that wasn’t how it ended for her,” Swager said. “How terrible would that be to feel so helpless.”

As I was learning CPR, I couldn’t help but think of the tiny, older woman I found slumped over a table at Breton Village Mall one morning several years ago. She looked as if she had put her head down to take a nap.

Puzzled, I walked over for a closer look. Her cup was tipped over and coffee spilled across the table.

I called for help and, in seconds, customers and staff at the restaurant were calling 911 and gathering around. Someone thought she found a pulse, but if the woman was breathing, her breaths were very faint. Mall walkers stopped and suggested laying her down and raising her feet.

Another woman helped me tilt back her chair to lay her gently on the floor. Immediately, the woman gulped in a big breath and then started breathing normally. By the time the emergency medical technicians arrived, she was alert and talking.

She wasn’t particularly happy to be the center of attention. But I heard she was back shopping at the mall the next week.

What bothered me about that situation, as I learned CPR, were the what-ifs.

What if she didn’t respond? What if her heart had stopped? Would I have just waited helplessly for the EMTs, her chances of survival diminishing with every second?

No guarantees now that I could do everything right. But I’m glad I am a bit wiser than I was two weeks ago.