CPR ... new guidelines

[skippy]

A new British Heart Foundation video is putting over the message that you dont have to give Mouth to Mouth to save a life.
Even if you are not trained in CPR just doing chest compressions about 2" deep at a rate of 100 per minute is enough to sustain somone until the emergency services arrive with all their gear.
Now I know we are talking about the emerg services all being working etc (please dont dilute the thread by introducing SHTF senarios.)
Here you go for the video:
http://link.brightcove.com/services/pla ... 4047259001

I still recommend that you do a Heart start or first aid course and get trained to save a life. Remember that skills are something you always carry round with you and are one of the best sorts of Prep.

Skippy

[itsybitsy]

I belive Vinnie Jones is fronting it. I read an article on Sky News about it earlier. If you do the chest compressions to the beat of 'Stayin Alive' by the Bee Gees then that's about right.

[skippy]

I belive Vinnie Jones is fronting it. I read an article on Sky News about it earlier. If you do the chest compressions to the beat of 'Stayin Alive' by the Bee Gees then that's about right.

Watch the video ...its pretty good ....."heres one I made earlier!" class

[the-gnole]

I guess that "Staying alive" is better than the other two songs that have been used as a timings guide, especially "if" the casualty comes around.

Hopefully the time it takes before the Medics arive will be enough without the need for rescue breaths.

As an aside I have a few face shields in my FAKs so I can use rescue breaths as well.

A couple of these



And a few of the cheaper ones

[skippy]

Pocket masks or even better bag and mask like this :
http://www.sellesmedical.co.uk/store/pr ... -off-Valve
are absolutly the things to have IF you are trained to use them.

I like the idea of everyone being able to do chest compressions tho ..... until someone better trained to do CPR takes over or the ambulance arrives.

Skips

[the-gnole]

I like the idea of everyone being able to do chest compressions tho ..... until someone better trained to do CPR takes over or the ambulance arrives.

Too true, I would prefer "someone" do something to help, even whilst others are busy making the phone calls.

The catch comes when there are problems with getting the medics to where you are dealing with your casualty.

The usual time is under ten minutes, but it isn't always the case, what would happen after that, say 30 minutes, after all, once you start CPR you are not meant to stop until someone else takes over, or a medic/Doctor pronounces death.

I have been at events where the Ambulance got called out, got stuck in traffic, they then called out the Air Ambulance from Cosford who then couldn't find the landing area because they were given the wrong Grid ref by the Land ambulance, so it took well over 30 minutes to get a team on the ground, luckily this wasn't heart related but the casualty was in hospital for two weeks with severe concussion, had it been a one on one only doing Compressions or even rescue breaths as well the first aider would be severely fatigued.

I am pretty sure I have the protocols for dealing with such incidents somewhere.

[the7ps]

I got taught to do CPR to the 'Nelly the elephant' song, anyone else had this? GENIUS!!!

[skippy]

"Nellie the Elephant" if sung at the origional tempo is 80 bpm and was great while 80 chest compressions per minute was the norm.
"Staying alive" by the Beegees at its normal tempo is 100bpm in line with the newer guidelines from those clever medical people.

Skippy

PS> Having had to do chest compressions for real two months ago I can tell you that 100 bpm is very tiring and needs regular swaps of personnel to keep it going for any length of time ....we had to keep it going for 25 mins.

[the-gnole]

There are three tunes that "can" be used for timings

Nellie the elephant
Staying alive
Another one bites the dust

Just don't sing along as you are carrying out CPR, especially numbers 1 and 3

[the7ps]

ha ha, this is brilliant! It's like some form of CPR karaoke...