You're at work, or maybe out on the golf course, and someone nearby collapses and appears to have stopped breathing. Do you know how to perform CPR? And even if you did, would you help?
Researchers at the University of Arizona's Sarver Heart Center discovered years ago that overwhelming numbers of people will not perform bystander resuscitation (CPR) because they do not want to do mouth-to-mouth breathing. More recent research has found that stopping continuous chest compressions for any reason, including so-called "rescue breathing," is actually detrimental.
For that reason, the Sarver Heart Center is in the forefront of efforts to win universal acceptance for an alternative method for performing bystander resuscitation. Its method omits rescue breathing altogether and instead requires people to administer 100 compressions per minute to the victim's chest until paramedics arrive.
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Sarver representatives will discuss and demonstrate their technique at 3:30 p.m. Wednesday in the Great Room of the Arizona Senior Academy adjacent to the Community Center at Academy Village, an active-adult community off Old Spanish Trail six miles southeast of Saguaro National Park East.
The event is free and open to the public.
Use of the Automated External Defibrillator (AED) will also be discussed.
The so-called "hands-only CPR" technique is not recognized by the American Red Cross or the various national and international guidelines committees. Healthcare professionals, EMTs, teachers and others are still required to qualify periodically for traditional CPR cards.
But the hands-only technique seems to be gaining acceptance. Until 2005, the official CPR Guidelines called for two "ventilations" (mouth-to-mouth rescue breaths) for every 15 chest compressions. In 2005 the guidelines were changed to allow 30 chest compressions for every two breaths.
Sarver officials say their research shows that the time it takes to deliver the recommended two breaths interrupted chest compressions for an average of 16 seconds. They said that for cardiac arrest victims, the forward blood flow achieved by chest compressions is so marginal that any interruption, including that for ventilation, is harmful.
Arizona data published in the Oct. 6, 2010, issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association showed that chest-compression-only CPR by lay people was associated with better survival for patients with out-of-hospital cardiac arrest compared with CPR that calls for chest compressions combined with mouth-to-mouth rescue breaths.
If You Go
• What: Presentation on "Hands-Only CPR"
• Where: Arizona Senior Academy Building, 13715 E. Langtry Lane
• When: 3:30 p.m. Wednesday
• Cost: Free; contributions accepted
• Reservations recommended: Call 647-0980
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