So the British Heart Foundation sre promoting ‘Hands only’ CPR. Having seen the advert I wonder what the point is of keeping the heart massaged while the brain dies of oxygen starvation. What do you qualified medical people think?

It was done last week. General consensus = good thing

Not qualified but just done my first aid course and we discussed it quite a lot. Basically there’s enough O2 in the blood for around 8 minutes. There is also some residual in the lungs. The most important thing is the compressions.
There was also some speculation that people would be more likely to do compressions than the mouth2mouth, especially in the case of a car crash or similar where there is facial trauma, i.e. lots of blood.

It doesn’t say in the advert but for children or drownings there is a different CPR where you do breaths 1st. I imagine that the compression only approach isn’t valid for those situations but maybe someone on here can comment.

There is enough O2 in the blood to keep you going for a while and you don’t get that much into them with the breaths anyway.

If the airway isnt blocked (you should be checking this before deciding CPR is needed) the small amount of air moved in and out of the lungs during compression is all that is necessary to supply the brain with oxygen until paramedics arrive.

Surely the first step is to check for a pulse, something the advert fails to mention

You don’t check for a pulse any more Tango Man. You check for breathing and if there’s not breathing start CPR. You also don’t look into the mouth to check for blocked airways. You tilt the head to open the airway, check for breathing and start CPR.

It’s well worth doing a course. For me professionaly CPR isn’t worth much, if I need to CPR someone where I ride they’re pretty much knackered. The chaces are really low, even if you get access to a defib within 12 mins. It ‘aint going to happen where I ride. But, in an urban setting it could save someone’s life.

Did a first aid course recently and again it was discussed.

There is o2 absorbed in the blood, there is o2 in the air in the lungs (16% ish on the way out which is why mouth to mouth works). Also chest compressions will move air in and out of the lungs to some extent if the airway is open.

Our trainer was mines rescue and an ex soldier so had experience of successful (and not, mainly) CPR. In many cases there was head trauma and blood around the mouth. He also reminded us that if you do mouth to mouth you will often put air into the stomach and then when you start compressions they will vomit. Mouth to mouth is then very unpleasant*.

So generally people were put off mouth to mouth or generally confused so did nothing. Compressions only is much better than nothing and much easier to do/remember.

* He had some interesting practice examples. Rather than the clean torso you normally get he had a full sized body, weighted, with hair, glass eyes, blood covered including in the mouth. It certainly made people think and in many cases get confused/distracted even if they were experienced first aiders (with not much practical experience). Also the casualty was never lying on their back in the middle of the room.

Isn’t “hands-only CPR” just “CR”?

you’d be surprised at how many people don’t know to call 999 first!
if there’s no help coming you might as well just walk on by!

compressions will force some air into the lungs anyway and if they ain’t breathing then CPR should immediately follow

According to Vinnie Jones compressions start if there is abnormal or agonal respirations.

Not 1st though if you suspect drowning or it’s a child. You do a series of air + compressions and then call for help.

I was always taught that the first thing you do is check for dangers to yourself before approaching the casualty.

I emailed my training co’ about this.

Response

“we are still teaching 30/2 with the option of dropping the breaths if First Aiders wish to. Its also a way to get more people to try than freak out about giving rescue breaths.”

hello, the general idea behind this is that the pressure of pushing down on the chest hard enough to effect the heart is also enough to push the ribs down. as the muscles spring back the lungs will take in air. It doesn’t fully enflate them like a deep breath would but it does bring a decent amount of o2 in.

As an aside, research has suggested that stopping CPR to take a breath (as a solo responder) has negative effects. the compressions build up quite good blood pressure if done effectivly, when compressions stop, blood pressure drops to zero and takes a while to build up again, which is part of the idea behind hands only cpr.