CPR: Learning to Save
A Life
Imagine,
you’re in a store, doing your weekly shopping, and a few short feet away from
you, an elderly couple is doing the same. Suddenly, surprising, the husband
collapses; he’s unconscious and doesn’t appear to be breathing. What would you
do? Would you know what to do?
In the scenario
above, it is likely the patient suffered from sudden cardiac arrest. Cardiac
arrest is a medical emergency and is more common than you may think. Unexpected cardiac arrest can lead to
death within minutes, however, it is potentially reversible if treated early.
One of the best tools for increasing the survival rate of cardiac arrest
patients is the administration of cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR.) CPR is performed on patients who are not breathing and do
not have a pulse. There is no greater emergency. CPR has the effect of getting
much-needed oxygen to the brain, where it can keep the nerves of the brain
alive long enough for someone to get the patient's heart beating again.
As of 2011, there were nearly
383,000 instances of out-of-hospital cardiac arrests; that’s almost 1,050 a
day. Of these instances, 88 percent of cardiac arrests occur at home. Many of
the victims appear healthy with no known heart disease or other risk factors. It
is not the same as a heart attack and does not discriminate for age or gender.
Anyone can be affected by cardiac arrest.
With these statistics in mind,
it is important to point out that 70 percent of Americans may feel helpless to act during a cardiac
emergency because they either do not know how to administer CPR or their training
has significantly lapsed. This should be alarming as, statistically speaking,
if called on to administer CPR in an emergency, the life you save is likely to
be someone at home: a child, a spouse, a parent or a friend. To put it simply: The life you save
with CPR is mostly likely to be someone you love.
We cannot stress enough how beneficial it would be
for more people to be trained in providing life-saving CPR. Effective bystander CPR provided immediately
after sudden cardiac arrest can double or triple a victim’s chance of survival,
but only 32 percent of cardiac arrest victims get CPR from a bystander. Sadly,
with so few administrating bystander CPR, there is only an 8 percent survival
rate for cardiac arrests that occur outside the hospital. Whether it is someone
you love or a complete stranger, by taking a CPR training course and engaging
bystander CPR, you are giving someone a much better chance to survive.
Anyone can learn CPR, and everyone should! By taking
the course, you are empowering yourself to save a life. The course, led by a certified medical
instructor, covers CPR and removing airway obstructions (choking) for adults,
infants and children. This class also covers AED, ventilation devices, barriers
for performing rescue breathing and two-person CPR techniques. You will also be
provided with various information from how to take control of an emergency
situation to facts and statistics that may surprise you. At the end of the
course, the instructor will turn you on to Pulse Point. This is a free app that
you can download onto your smartphone and it will alert you if there cardiac
emergency in a public place. The location-aware application will alert
trained citizens in the vicinity of the need for bystander CPR with the
dispatch of advanced medical care.
If you are interested in
learning CPR, courses are offered through Sioux Falls Fire and Rescue. The
course generally takes about two hours and allows up to 20 students. We strongly
encourage you get your family, friends, and colleagues involved. There can
never be too many people who know how to properly administer CPR in
emergencies. Take the course and save a life!
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