Steps to Performing CPR

Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) is an important emergency procedure followed when a person suffers from cardiac arrest, respiratory arrest or heart attack. Cardiac arrest refers to the cessation of the normal circulation of blood due to failure of the contraction of the heart. Respiratory arrest relates to or coincides with cardiac arrest as a condition of arrested circulation of blood stops supply of oxygen to the body parts. It is a life-threatening condition, which can result in brain damage in a few minutes and death within 10 minutes.

Steps to Performing CPR

Conventional CPR is performed by qualified medical practitioners; however, a layman can also carry out CPR for maintaining circulation and breathing. It involves clearing the airway, mouth-to-mouth rescue breathing along with chest compression.

Before doing CPR, put the person on his/her back and try to wake him/her up. Check whether the person is conscious or unconscious. If it is confirmed that he/she is in unconscious state, then only one can proceed for CPR. Recommended CPR for children and adults is different. Let’s see the basic steps to perform CPR in adults.

The first step in performing CPR is to open the airway of the person. To achieve this, put your palm on the forehead and carefully tilt the head back. Gently lift the chin forward with your other hand and try to feel the person’s breath. Also look if there is any chest movement.

If the person is not breathing properly, pinch the nostrils and seal his/her mouth with yours. Now, you can give a mouth-to-mouth breathing for 1 second. Check for any rise of the chest, if yes, let the chest fall and repeat the procedure twice.

In case, if the chest doesn’t rise, repeat the step of clearing the airway (head-tilt, chin-rise) position and do mouth-to-mouth breathing again. If the mouth is injured, one can give mouth-to-nose breathing.

Now, proceed with chest compressions in order to restore blood circulation of the person. For this, kneel at the side of the person and place the heel of your hand in the middle of the chest (between the nipples). You have to put your other hand on the top of the hand placed on the chest. Make sure your elbows are straight and the shoulders are directly above the hand.

Gently compress the chest of the victim to about 5 cm (2 inches). While giving chest compression, push hard and fast at a rate of about 2 per second. Repeat the compression for 30 times and after that, open the airway as mentioned in the first step. Give two rescue breaths and check if the chest rises. This is the completion of the first cycle.

Repeat the steps about five cycles of 30 compressions and two rescue breaths, i.e. for about 2 minutes and check if the person starts breathing or not. In case the person is not breathing, repeat the procedure again until help arrives.

If a person is not trained enough to do CPR, he can perform hands-only CPR, which means giving uninterrupted chest compressions. This will at least help to some extent. Knowing these simple first aid steps of CPR can certainly save people in case of a cardiac or respiratory arrest.