SCA, or Sudden cardiac Arrest, has been a bane to people all over the world. Striking with very little warning, SCA is not that choosy when it comes to the profile of the victim. While many people see SCA and heart attack as one and the same, that is not actually the case. In an SCA situation, the person’s heart suffers from irregular beating patterns. The irregularity in the pattern keeps the heart from effectively pumping enough blood to all the major organs in the body by disrupting the electrical impulses which, in turn, causes the heart to abruptly stop. Now, without the oxygen from the blood, these major organs would start suffering from tissue necrosis. The death of the tissue of major organs, if left unattended, could lead to death. To date, 90% of people with SCA die. It is for this reason that most people who suffer from SCA need to have someone administer immediately what is known as the CPR.
CPR, as what most people are now aware of, stands for Cardio Pulmonary Resuscitation. While it is not the end-all, be-all when it comes to saving someone from the throes of SCA, it is still a process that one can depend on when it comes to buying the patient some more time until medical professionals can attend to him or her. However, CPR is only as effective as the person doing it. Having said that, if you happen to be in situation that calls for the application of CPR, you might want to keep a few things in mind.
Now, first thing’s first. If someone within your immediate vicinity collapses, what you need to do is tap him or her on his or her shoulders to check if they are okay. If you do not get any response from the victim, make sure you call 911. Once you have placed the call, that is the only time that you can start doing CPR. If there are people around you, you can also go straight to doing the CPR while having somebody else place the call to 911. Now, if a baby is involved, stroke the feet to elicit response. Under no circumstance should you shake the baby or hit him or her hard.
If you have not had any kind of CPR training, what you need to do is what is known as hands-only CPR. This means that you need to continuously apply chest compressions at a rate of 100 compressions per minute until the paramedics arrive. This is also the case if you have had trainings in the past but have grown rusty over the years. On the other hand, if you have had training and have not forgotten about it, you can apply chest compressions along with rescue breathing. If there is an AED unit on hand, it is advisable to hook up the patient to the AED first before doing any CPR or rescue breathing. This is because the AED would be able to assess whether the patient still needs to undergo CPR or if electric shocks from the unit would suffice.
At the end of the day, it is still best if you keep yourself updated when it comes to CPR. Companies like Citywide CPR provide CPR certification programs that allow ordinary people to have the ability to save lives.
