As seen on TV and movies, CPR can be applied to help a person survive from his sudden collapse due to cardiac arrest and other conditions alike. It has been a fact, however, that many people nowadays have developed several misconceptions on the purpose and steps of applying CPR to a cardiac arrest victim. According to the American Heart Association (AHA), there are only about 92 percent of CPR applications are successful enough to save the life of the out-of-hospital subject. The remaining eight percent are the failed ones due to improper or delayed CPR procedures.
Both CPR experts and ordinary people are advised to apply this immediate remedy for a person caught by cardiac arrest while in a public place or any area other than a medical center. Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) is basically described as an emergency procedure intended to manually preserve intact function of the victim’s brain until such time that he regains return of spontaneous circulation (ROSC). In Canada, the national Red Cross estimates that only 1 out of 7 people know how to perform CPR outside a medical facility. Still, it has been generally recommended that immediate application of CPR, whether it is perfectly done or not, is a main option whenever such emergency situation takes place. For non-expert and untrained rescuers, it is advised to rescue a cardiac victim by performing chest compression only. The standard chest compressions are done at least 5cm deep with a rate of at least 100 pumps per minute. In this way, there is a high chance that the death of brain tissues will be delayed while there is a partial restoration of the flow of oxygenated blood to the brain, heart, lungs, and other vital organs.
In 2009, the American Heart Association started training at least 12 million people a year on the fundamentals of CPR. Aside from chest compression, these trainees are also taught to apply artificial breath to the cardiac arrest victim in order to further increase his chance to survive. This is basically done either by exhaling into the victim’s mouth or by using a device to create artificial circulation with the help of manual pumping of blood to and from the heart. Before the end of the CPR training, each participant is required to fully understand the concept of CPR and be able to distinguish the facts and myths about this first aid procedure. They are also molded to become responsible enough to perform CPR reasonably and prudently in order to maximize the chance of the victim to survive. If you want to be trained by a prominent AHA instructor for CPR, you have to look for an acclaimed training center within your area that is in line with this specialization.
One of the renowned providers of AHA-accredited CPR training courses is Citywide CPR. As the national training center for the AHA, and also for Emergency Care & Safety Institute and other related organizations, this company also provides advanced certification for ACLS, BLS, and PALS.
If you are interested in CPR training, please take a look to check our website.