CPR

[Fishin 911]

My fishing colleagues:

I wanted to pass something on that everyone should know...that is CPR. Especially if you have children or older parents...you could save their life.
Some areas 911 centers do not use medical protocols like we use in Leon County. They cannot tell you how to do CPR over the phone. Call the American Red Cross in your area to find a class near you.

For you folks who may know how to do CPR, unless you have recently been certified, the procedures have changed. There are now more compressions delivered than before. Data has shown that for an adult that has just collapsed from cardiac arrest that the compressions are more important than rescue breaths. A cardiac arrest victim responds to defibrillation (shocking) better when the heart has been compressed more and thus the better chance for survival. The old way of CPR had too many pauses in it to do the breaths..those pauses drastically reduced the survival rate.

For the first time,for lay rescuers a universal compression-ventilation ratio (30:2) is recommended for all single rescuers of infant, child, and adult victims (excluding newborns). Some skills (eg, rescue breathing without chest compressions) will no longer be taught to lay rescuers. The goal of the changes is to make CPR easier for all rescuers to learn, remember, and perform.

[RodBow]

Also, If you have an opportunity to get AED (Automatic External Defibrillator) training, do so.

These are the shock boxes you may see hanging on the wall in public places and they're for lay people to use on cardiac related victims. The automatic part of it audibly walks the user(s) to place pads, shock or not shock (push the button or not). There are stats that indicate a cardiac victim has a 4 times better chance when AED is used.

The state EMS office supports county level grants for AED's and has a program in place to place in every school. You might find them in malls, airports, churches, etc and some law enforcement departments have them in all vehicles.

Florida "Good Samaritan" legislation takes most of the worries out of helping people in emergent situations but training is important for basic first aid, CPR and AED. The life you safe may be someone you know - its always someone somebody knows...

[chugbug]

We get that training in the AF. It good to know but I hope I never have to use it.

[RHTFISH]

I believe AED guidelines have also changed as the breaths to compressions have changed. Try it once and forget if not successful.

[Fishin 911]

RodBow, thanks for mentioning the AED's. You ought to see Collier County's survival rate for cardiac arrest. It is amazing. They have a lot of AED's in their community. Every law enforcement vehicle has one there. They have a lot out in the public community. They have several people who have signed up as "AED volunteers" who when notified they can deploy an AED within a mile of their location.

I saw a software program that can notify one of these volunteers by an automated phone call in about 3 to 4 seconds after you have gotten the address of the CA vitim and indicated you have a cardiac arrest call.

Tallahassee hopefully will start to get more AED's in the community. LCEMS supports the "heart healthy community".