How CPR Works
You're
playing your usual weekend pick-up basketball game with friends. Without
warning, one of your teammates suddenly crumples to the ground. You scream out
his name, but there's no response. His face turns pale and bluish, and you
can't see his chest rise and fall to breathe. You listen for a heartbeat, but
you can't find a pulse at all. You quickly grab your cell phone and dial 911.
Every year, this type of scenario is played
out more than 600 times a day in the United States alone. Without rapid medical
intervention, the prognosis is grim. Sudden cardiopulmonary arrest is
the leading cause of death for all adults, male or female.
Fortunately, modern medicine has come up
with a number of tools to combat cardiopulmonary arrest. Many of these
emergency procedures require medical training and/or complex equipment, but
one, cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), can be used in the field by
lay people with only a little bit of training.
PLEASE NOTE:
This article is not intended to be used as a method for teaching CPR. For
proper CPR training, consult your local hospital or American Red Cross location
for available classes.
Cardiopulmonary
Arrest
Cardiopulmonary arrest simply means that your heart (cardio)
and lungs (pulmonary) aren't working -- your heart isn't beating,
and you aren't breathing. Many different things can lead to cardiopulmonary
arrest, including:
A heart attack, for example, can
damage the heart muscle and impede its ability to vigorously contract,
resulting in cardiopulmonary arrest. You know that the heart is a muscle
that expands and contracts under the electrical control of a special group of pacemaking
cells. The pumping action of the heart pushes blood teeming with oxygen and
other nutrients out to the rest of your body. If your heart isn't beating
properly or at all, blood isn't supplied to your body, and oxygen and other
vital nutrients don't get delivered to your tissues and organs (including your
heart). With no energy to power your body, vital organs like your heart and
lungs stop working, and you are in a state of cardiopulmonary arrest.
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Cardiopulmonary arrest is an extremely dangerous
situation. Within 4 to 6 minutes without oxygen, your brain cells
begin to die off rapidly. With each additional minute, the damage builds up.
Most people cannot survive long in such a state.
CPR
Basics
Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) is a first-aid technique used to
keep victims of cardiopulmonary arrest alive and to prevent brain damage while
more advanced medical help is on the way. CPR has two goals:
While the modern emergency
room has high-tech equipment and an arsenal of drugs to help treat victims of
cardiopulmonary arrest, CPR is a simple technique that requires little or no
equipment. What you do is pretty basic:
Here are the steps that make
up CPR:
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It sounds pretty simple, but as you can see
above, CPR must be performed in a specific, timed sequence to accurately
mimic your body's natural breathing pattern and the way your heart pumps. When
someone collapses right in front of you, your first reaction is often sheer
terror. But while you're panicked and unable to act, valuable minutes are
slipping away. To counter this, many organizations such as the American
Heart Association and the American Red Cross offer classes that
train you in CPR and basic first aid and give you hands-on practice to
hone your CPR skills. Then, if you are confronted with an emergency situation,
you are prepared to jump into action.