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Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR)
What is CPR?
Cardiopulmonary resuscitation
(CPR) is a combination of rescue breathing and chest compressions
delivered to victims thought to be in cardiac arrest. When cardiac
arrest occurs, the heart stops pumping blood. CPR can support a
small amount of blood flow to the heart and brain to “buy time”
until normal heart function is restored.
Cardiac arrest is often caused by an abnormal heart rhythm called
ventricular fibrillation (VF). When VF develops, the heart quivers
and doesn't pump blood. The victim in VF cardiac arrest needs CPR
and delivery of a shock to the heart, called defibrillation.
Defibrillation eliminates the abnormal VF heart rhythm and allows
the normal rhythm to resume. Defibrillation is not effective for
all forms of cardiac arrest but it is effective to treat VF, the
most common cause of sudden cardiac arrest.
O R
Cardiopulmonary
resuscitation (CPR) is an emergency procedure involving chest
compressions (pressing down on the chest) and artificial respiration
(rescue breathing). It has the power to restore blood flow to
someone suffering cardiac arrest, keeping them alive until an
ambulance arrives.
What is a cardiac arrest?
A cardiac arrest
is when the heart stops beating regularly and can no longer pump
blood through the body. Each year there are between 35,000 and
45,000 cases of cardiac arrest in Canada. A cardiac arrest can have
a variety of causes – heart attack, drowning, stroke, electrocution,
suffocation, drug overdose, motor vehicle or other trauma.
A cardiac arrest
is a life-or-death emergency. If you find an adult, child or infant
who is not breathing and does not have a heartbeat, you must act
quickly. The best chance a person has of surviving is for you to
recognize what is happening and react quickly by starting CPR .
Learn to recognize heart attack warning signals and react quickly to
save a life.
Why get trained?
Once the heart
stops pumping, seconds count. For every minute that passes without
help, a person’s chance of surviving drops by about 10 percent. But
if you know how to respond to a cardiac arrest, their odds of
survival and recovery may increase by 30 percent or more.
Learning CPR is
easy and inexpensive – just a few hours could make an important
difference in someone’s life. Find out about the different kinds of
CPR courses available.
Since most
cardiac arrests happen at home, you could be saving the life of a
friend of family member. Find out about CPR training in your area.
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CPR IN
THREE SIMPLE STEPS
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1. CALL
Check the victim for
unresponsiveness. If
there is no response, Call your local emergency center and
return to the victim. In most locations the emergency
dispatcher can assist you with CPR instructions. |
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2. BLOW
Tilt the head
back and listen for
breathing. If
not breathing normally, pinch nose and cover the mouth with
yours and blow until you see the chest rise. Give 2 breaths.
Each breath should take 1 second. |
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3. PUMP
If the victim is
still not breathing normally, coughing or moving, begin chest
compressions.
Push down
on the chest 11/2 to 2 inches 30 times right between the
nipples. Pump at the rate of 100/minute, faster than once per
second. |
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CONTINUE
WITH 2 BREATHS AND 30 PUMPS UNTIL HELP ARRIVES
NOTE: This ratio is the same for one-person & two-person CPR.
In two-person CPR the person pumping the chest stops while the
other gives mouth-to-mouth breathing. |
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