CPR Steps

The knowledge about CPR comes in handy, when someone with you or nearby gets a respiratory or sudden cardiac arrest. Such a person needs assistance and if you are well versed in executing steps for CPR it can make a lot of difference to the victim. How quickly and efficiently one can deliver this assistance until that person gets proper medical assistance is of real importance. Your initiative in performing CPR may prove instrumental in saving the life of the person who is suffering. This is because even though knowledge of CPR for health care providers is important, waiting for a health care provider to arrive at the scene may, in the meantime, lead to irreversible damage to the victim.

Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation

When a person is suffering from a heart attack or respiratory arrest, it becomes difficult for him or her to breathe. The procedure indicates that such person be given mouth-to-mouth breathing. The aim is to force as much air into his lungs, as this ensures that the blood of the victim gets oxygenated. The chest compressions that are delivered during CPR helps the heart to beat, which forces the blood to circulate. Both of these steps are very vital, in order to maintain the proper blood supply to the organs of the body and to minimize or prevent the damage to the body tissues. In some cases, it may happen that a person executes the steps for the first time and revives the breathing and the beating of the heart of the victim. However, before starting to perform these steps, one should show presence of mind and call 911 for assistance. This call may prove to be very important for the person in need, especially when you don't know how to deliver CPR. Many of the emergency dispatcher attending your call can help you with the necessary instructions after sending the ambulance with paramedics on the way.

CPR for Adults

In today's stressful life, one can hardly imagine when these steps can become useful as a first aid step. There are CPR certification courses which can help you get this essential knowledge. While attending these classes, you will come to know that there are different types, depending on the age of the victim, which means it's different for adults, children and infants. Before one performs it on the victim, it is essential that certain facts are established. It may be that you found the victim during a fire, well, in such a situation it is very important to see to that you won't be coming to a harm during performing CPR for the victim as well as for you.

• Check how much the victim is responsive; you can do so by shaking him or calling out loudly. If he is responsive taking his consent before providing assistance is needed. On the other hand, he may not need CPR. In case of an unconscious victim his consent for help is taken to be implicit. For children and infants, tingling their foot may do the work for you and let you know whether they are responsive or not.
• Tilt the victim's head back to clear the airways and by putting your ear to his mouth sense his breathing.
• In case, he is not breathing normally, pinch his nose take a deep breath and blow the air into his lungs by covering his mouth until you see his chest rise. Take off your mouth and let the air escape and his chest fall.
• Perform this step twice in succession, each time spending 1 second to blow the air.
• The victim may vomit, start coughing, start moving or give some kind of response to this.
• If the victim vomits, turn him to the side and let it dribble down the side of the mouth. This will prevent him from choking on his own vomit. Wipe the vomit off his mouth and continue with providing the CPR to the victim.
• However, if the victim is still unresponsive, start chest compression. While doing this, lay your palms facing down and on top of each other. Lay them between the nipples on the victims chest.
• Begin chest compression by pushing down on the chest such that it goes down 1½ to 2 inches.
• Repeat the procedure 30 times at the speed of 100 per minute. That means approximately, 17 pushes must be performed in 10 seconds.
• Follow these chest compressions with 2 breaths until paramedics arrive to take over from you or transport the victim to a medical facility for further medical care. Paramedics may use a portable automated external defibrillator to revive the victim on the spot or in the ambulance while rushing to reach to the hospital.
• If there are two persons trying to help the victim, then one should look after giving artificial breathing to the victim and the other person should concentrate on chest compressions. They should work alternately to provide valuable assistance to the victim.

These steps may vary from place to place, like the Red Cross procedure may be slightly different. However, whatever may be the case or procedure, the ratio of 2 breaths and 30 chest compression remains the same. Executing CPR for providing emergency assistance is tiring for a person. So, it is very essential that you put in a call for emergency assistance services (911) beforehand. It is also essential that you take some precaution before giving mouth-to-mouth rescue breathing, such as using a mask while doing it, so as not to catch an infection even though it is a rare happening. I hope, this article on cardiopulmonary resuscitation proves helpful in motivating you to get enrolled in a CPR certificate course and learn it properly.