You see compression CPR done a lot in medical hit dramas. From E.R.’s famed halls to House M.D., even to the sci-fi cult hit show The X-Files, you’ve seen Scully and Mulder drop down on their knees to offer life-saving CPR one character or another. It seems so easy anyone can do it, right? Not exactly, here’s what you need to know about CPR to get your facts straight:
Fiction: It helps restart a heart.
Fact: It doesn’t. But it does help you manually pump blood through the heart and that allows oxygen to get to the brain. The most dangerous thing involving cardiac arrests and heart attacks is that it cuts off the body’s oxygen supply to the brain. This not only impedes higher brain functions, it can cause extensive damage to the brain as well, not to mention a host of other serious complications. CPR keeps that from happening simply by keeping up the oxygen to the brain.
Fiction: It’s easy.
Fact: It’s hard work. You’re essentially taking over the function of the heart. That means you’ve got to keep pushing hard on the victim’s chest. Make sure you practice. You need to do compressions that are about 2 inches in depth. And you need to do it at a rate of 100 compressions per minute. That can get exhausting pretty quickly. If you can’t maintain, you should have someone you can switch with. You can do this for every 2 minutes until the person revives or help arrives.
Fiction: You don’t need CPR training.
Fact: About 85 percent of cardiac arrests happen at home, says Public Safety Facts. So unless you’ve got a doctor in the family, you or a loved one could up with brain damage and other complications long after help arrives. After all, you can’t always count on help arriving on time. But if someone with adult CPR training happens to be around, then your loved ones stand a better chance at a full and faster recovery.
Fiction: Only people in the medical field can do this.
Fact: A lot of laymen perform CPR techniques to save a life. All you need is adequate training.
You can even enroll along with your family in a CPR training program. That way, everyone’s equipped to handle a medical emergency in case it happens. For more information about CPR training, you can get in touch with us at SimpleCPR.
