9 Step Guide to Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR)
It is also called the “Kiss of Life”, Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation or CPR is known to have saved many a life when no other first aid was available. It is now accepted as the only method to revive a person who has suddenly had a cardiac arrest in a remote place or even in a swimming pool with no emergency medical facilities and is sure to be clinically dead, if not exposed to this life saving method.
CPR techniques have now become so indispensable that even corporate houses with high pressure work environments are training their employees in groups on the process’ methodology. Here is a step by step guide on CPR techniques:
– Make the patient lie on his back and remove anything that obstructs his air passage like a displaced denture or tie.
– Place both your hands, palms downwards on the centre of the chest and press down at regular intervals. This will ensure re-supply of good or oxygenated blood to the heart again to induce beating and is the stimulation part of the CPR exercise.
– Simultaneously, give mouth-to mouth breathing to pump air into the patient’s lungs in order to restore pulmonary function.
– In cases of drowning, the patient’s head must be tilted to one side so that water accumulated in the lungs can be ejected through the mouth.
– After the patient’s recovery through these initial steps in the CPR routine, arrange for an electrical defibrillator to be applied to the chest for cardiac stimulation. Please note that the patient’s final survival and prevention of damage to other organs because of the arrest, depends largely on the ready availability of the defibrillator, which acts as an indispensable auxiliary to manual CPR applied earlier.
– Apply the defibrillator for a period of fifteen to thirty minutes depending on the intensity of the attack in the post-CPR phase.
– Make immediate arrangements for supplementing CPR with streptokinase enzyme injections as also other life saving drugs.
– An endo-tracheal tube also may be inserted through the patient’s mouth or nose and connected to an oxygen cylinder for supply of pressurized pure oxygen. This may also be administered through an oxygen mask.
– Remember that as the main rescuer you have to stay calm, start CPR maneuvers and simultaneously call for an ambulance, oxygen and necessary emergency drugs.
It is always wise to be trained in CPR techniques, especially when you are living with a person who has a history of acute heart disease or even terminal illness. The technique, of course, rarely works for patients with advanced cancer where the other vital organs too, have been affected. However, it has been seen that in cases of sudden choking over a bone while eating, CPR has come to the rescue. The same applies to sportsmen going into sudden cardiac arrest while on the field, track, course or pool.
The final survival rate again depends on the availability of the defibrillator and the reduction in response time for CPR application in case of a collapse. Sure, as a bystander who is trained in CPR, you may be taken aback initially. So, the faster you try to apply your knowledge, the lesser the chances of cerebral and organ damage.
Author Bio: For more information please visit our Online CPR Courses website.
Category: Medical Business
Keywords: life saving method,Kiss of Life,Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation,CPR techniques,oxygenated blood
