Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation: Unusual Techniques for Unusual Situations

Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) is an advance technique of lifesaving actions, to support and maintenance of breathing and circulation on the victim who has had a cardiac or respiratory arrest, thereby improving the survival rate. CPR includes the manual application of chest compressions and ventilations to patients in cardiac arrest, done in an effort to maintain feasible until advanced help arrives. This process is basic component of basic life support (BLS) and advanced cardiac life support (ACLS).

When a person collapses all of a sudden because the heart’s electrical function goes away, it turns out, there is enough air in the lungs to retain heart and brain functions for a few minutes, as long as blood is pumped continuously to those vital organs. In addition, some people heave while in cardiac arrest, which can bring more oxygen into the lungs. So, the studies strongly suggest that pause chest compressions to administer rescue breaths actually decline the effectiveness of CPR in these patients.

Abrupt cardiac arrest is not the same as a heart attack. A patient of sudden cardiac arrest collapses suddenly, the patient does give any response to gentle shaking and stops breathing normally. This mainly occurs when the heart’s electrical system fails, resulting in highly irregular signals that leave the heart unable to pump blood. After just four minutes of this, the brain is unable to recover from a hypoxia and begins to seriously decline.

About 90 percent of people in sudden cardiac arrest die before reaching the hospital. Many of them were otherwise healthy. A victim’s chances of survival fall by 6 percent to 10 percent every minute the heart fails to pump.

So to rescue the patient put one hand over the other, with fingers tie together, place them in the centre of the chest between the nipples, and press hard and fast. Each compression should depress the chest by about two inches and should be repeated about 100 times per minute. The chest should be allowed to rise up moment between compressions to allow the heart and lungs to refill. Alone Chest compressions can be done only for teenagers and adults in sudden cardiac arrest. Conventional CPR, with rescue breathing, is used for infants and younger children. It can also be used in the case of teenagers and adults in cardiac arrest who collapsed unobserved and may not have any air left in their lungs, as well as for victims of  drug overdose, drowning or collapse because of a breathing problem.

The heart association has changed the recommended protocol for conventional CPR for improving its effectiveness. The current recommendation is to start with 30 chest compressions (at a rate of 100 a minute) followed by two one-second breaths, repeating this whole process until help arrives.

When providing breaths, the victims head should be placed tilted back to open the airway. In case of an infant, the rescuer’s mouth should completely cover the baby’s nose and mouth. For children older than one year and for adults, the victim’s nose must be pinched and the mouth would completely covered by the mouth of the rescuer, who should observe the chest rising with each rescue breath also. Thus the successful execution of CPR can save number of lives.

By:

Dr. Bhumika Chandrakar

Assistant Professor- Department of Pharmacy, Kalinga University

Email Id: bhumika.chandrakar@kalingauniversity.ac.in

Reference/Citation

  1. https://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/12/23/taking-life-into-your-own-hands/

  2. https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/534159256/

Like this article?

Share on Facebook
Share on Twitter
Share on Linkdin
Share on Pinterest

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Kalinga Plus is an initiative by Kalinga University, Raipur. The main objective of this to disseminate knowledge and guide students & working professionals.
This platform will guide pre – post university level students.
Pre University Level – IX –XII grade students when they decide streams and choose their career
Post University level – when A student joins corporate & needs to handle the workplace challenges effectively.
We are hopeful that you will find lot of knowledgeable & interesting information here.
Happy surfing!!

  • Free Counseling!