CPR skills.

Maybe its time to brush up on CPR?

So I went to a class tonight and I think I may get a certificate but the most important thing is what I learned.

1 You come on a victim. First thing you do is call for help (911), (999).

2. Ask the relatives if they have a living will and if so ask to see it and see if they have the necessary signatures. I thought that was interesting. Does it say whether they want to be revived?

3. Make sure the passageway is open so they can breath. Turn head to one side so if they puke it will clear their mouth.

4. Their maybe a disput on mouth to mouth. You should have a barrier so as not to go direct mouth to mouth.

5. Maybe should have mentioned earlier. Check for a pulse. Use your fingers and not the thumb(it gives you your own pulse). Take the pulse below the jaw and on the side of the neck. No pulse get going on CPR.

6 Try 30 presses, keep the arms straight and don't bend them. Put two of your palms on top of each other in the center of the chest, midway between the nipples and start pressing firmly. Don't worry if you hear or feel ribs breaking.

7. Forgot to mention earlier. Try to engage in conversation with the victim. This will indicate if they are breathing among other things?

8. To be effective with CPR the victim should be on a hard surface, so that would mean not on a coach or bed.

9. I hope you will remember  this if the situation should arise and you could save someones life.

10. I found out that in the US a lot of large stores and mall have kits so you can shock the victim. The instructions on that is a little more involved but more effective.

Your list is confusing and out of order.   

You should definitely take the class if you think you will be needing to use CPR for a specific reason, i.e. the having someone in your house with a heart condition.   

You need to be trained in order to use AEDs, if you use one and you have no training and injure the person you could be sued, even with the Good Samaritan Laws.  You can't perform any skills that you know to be beyond your level of training and expect the law to cover you. 

Bookgrl,

I wrote that soon after coming home and the glaring mistake I made was when I said turning the head to the side. I should have said turn the head up so that there is no obstruction in the mouth or blockage of the the airway and also look to see if there is any back injury before doing so. If you think there is a back injury you should not move the head. They also said don't put your finger in their mouth. I thought that was interesting.

OK on your other point. You don't need to be a surgeon to work on a victim. You don't have to be certified. The whole point is people should know what to do so they don't end up watching helplessly while someone dies needlessly. Obviously the person with the best knowledge should be in charge but if there is no one around.........

I think you are assuming that there is always going to be someone around who is trained. That would be wonderful but we need to know what to do until the trained person gets there.

I agree with you on the trained use of AEDs.

I don't agree with your last sentence. A case in point. A pilot dies while piloting a plane. A passenger who did not have the training was able to land the plane safely.

My point is do the best you can rather than just stand there and see someone die. There are things that can be done.

My point is do the best you can rather than just stand there and see someone die. There are things that can be done.

I agree with you.  As I said the law won't cover you.  You can't expect the Good Samaritian laws to cover that situation in the US, or in the UK for that matter.  They don't even have G.S. laws here.

Thank you for not taking that wrongly.

Jim

For those interested in BASIC CPR heres a good link:

http://depts.washington.edu/learncpr/quickcpr.html

Nice concise site for first responders and those wanting a understanding  of what to do if you should be the one that finds someone unresponsive.

Kay

Thank you for not taking that wrongly.

Jim

No problem. 

Why do I keep reading the subject of this thread as "CPR kills"?? 

Why do I keep reading the subject of this thread as "CPR kills"?? 

Well, if you take too long verifying the validity of the signatures on the living will before starting, it might.

For those interested in BASIC CPR heres a good link:

http://depts.washington.edu/learncpr/quickcpr.html

Nice concise site for first responders and those wanting a understanding  of what to do if you should be the one that finds someone unresponsive.

Kay

Thank you for the link.  I'll be retaking CPR/First Aid this summer so I can keep my place on my employer's Emergency Response Team.

No worries. As a RN I take a yearly update so we keep up to date on the latest.
Matter of fact I just had my update yesterday .
 
We get the in depth version with both adult,child and infant CPR.