CPR
"CPR" is a well-known abbreviation for Cardio-Pulmonary Resuscitation. CPR is an emergency medical technique used to keep oxygenated blood circulating through the body of a patient whose heart and lungs have stopped working automatically. CPR is performed in hospitals, by emergency medical professionals, and by trained laypersons.
CPR techniques keep changing as research shows better ways. The old approach was to give breaths in between compressions, and the number of breaths and compressions changed periodically. Now the approach is to focus most on compressions to keep blood circulating to organs and tissues. Get CPR certified and maintain the certification so you can make a difference some day.
CPR is typically performed by manually compressing the chest of a victim in a rapid, regular rhythm, squeezing the heart to pump blood through the body. After every few compressions, air is blown into the victim's lungs by the CPR performer's mouth. Typically, the chest is compressed thirty times and then the CPR performer pauses chest compression to breath into the victim's mouth twice. CPR should be commenced immediately and continued until advanced medical assistance becomes available, or until the victim's heart and lungs begin to function on their own again.
For nearly 50 years, CPR has consisted of both artificial blood circulation and artificial respiration. However, in March 2008, the American Heart Association and the European Resuscitation Council endorsed the effectiveness of chest compression alone for adult victims who collapse in sudden cardiac arrest.
CPR alone is unlikely to restart the heart. Its main purpose is to keep blood circulating to prevent tissue death and extend the window of opportunity to restart the heart without permanent brain damage. Restarting the heart often requires use of an electronic defibrillator (usually carried by emergency responders) or advanced life support equipment found in hospitals.
CPR has been known in theory for hundreds or perhaps thousands of years. The Bible describes an incident that resembles CPR superficially in Kings II 4:34. The Hebrew prophet Elisha warms a dead boy's body and "place(s) his mouth over his." In the 19th Century, doctor H. R. Silvester described a method of artificial respiration (later known as the Silvester Method) that involves raising the victim's arms over his head and then lowering them to his sides. The upward arm motions expand the chest, drawing air into the lungs, and the lowering of the arms allows the lungs to collapse, expelling stale air. The Silvester method achieved widespread popularity through the 1950s, appearing in Boy Scout manuals, cartoons, and even an episode of "Lassie". But it is only an artificial respiration technique, doing nothing to address blood circulation.
Artificial cardiac stimulation combined with artificial mouth-to-mouth respiration first appeared in a 1962 training film developed by James Jude, Guy Knickerbocker and Peter Safar. Modern CPR quickly became a widespread technique among emergency medical professionals. In the U. S., CPR was first promoted as a first-aid technique that the general public should know in the 1970s.
Mouth-to-mouth artificial respiration was combined with chest compression in the CPR technique on the assumption that ventilation was essential in cardiac arrest cases. The requirement to place one's mouth in intimate contact with a stranger’s actually causes some reluctance to administer or even learn CPR. The new guidelines requiring only chest compression in cardiac arrest cases may save more lives by encouraging more people to administer CPR more promptly. Mouth-to-mouth artificial respiration is still part of CPR in cases where the victim is not breathing normally.
