The American Heart Association is striving to make the world a better place by equipping the general public with the knowledge on how to save a life in cases of asthma or cardiac arrests. Its goal is to promote an advocacy and an awareness that life is precious and one minute of negligence can lead to the death of many. Every year, the number goes up and AHA simply wants to reduce the number of people who die on the streets or inside their homes due to cardiac or asthma attack just because no one was there to save them or if there is someone there but do not know how to do CPR.
CPR is very important. When seen on TV or in the movies, CPR looks simple and uncomplicated. Many people think that it is to just pound on the chest till the breathing resuscitates. However, there is a right way to do CPR and that is what the American Heart Association wants everybody to learn. Together with its national partner and as the national training site of first aid programs Citywide CPR, they are encouraging people to join this cause of having the right skills and the adequate training even if not all of us are medical experts. This is because when times get rough and there is no medical professional around, the only thing a patient can rely on are the people around him. To some people that is trivial, but to the patient, getting his life saved by a total stranger means the world to him.
In line with this, the guidelines for conducting CPR have changed over the years. In fact, American Heart Association has updated this and announced that there is no need for mouth-to-mouth resuscitation and CPR can be done just as well and as effective with hands-only chest pumps. This is also to promote accessibility among the people in the environment to offer a hand knowing that they do not need to make mouth-to-mouth contact with a patient they do not know.
Here are the three approved methods that the American Heart Association is implementing and its partner, Citywide CPR has included in its first aid trainings and classes:
- Hands-only CPR – This involved manually pumping the chest with one palm over another but the hand above is closed tightly on the hand below to initiate force and pressure. This helps manually revived the beating of the heart of a person who had a sudden cardiac arrest.
- Mouth-to-mouth CPR – As mentioned above, this is not required any longer since hands-only CPR works, but for people who do not mind and if there is a need to breathe into the mouth of the patient, this will help bring back oxygen into the lungs which can revive the breathing of the patient.
- AED-assisted CPR – This kind of CPR is done when there is an automated external defibrillator (AED) available in the area. This machine calculates the severity of the attack and comes up with the sufficient pressure that it needs to relay it electronically and bring back the rhythm of breathing again.
Learn all about these CPR methods with the traditional and online classes from Citywide CPR.
If you wish to take a class, take a look at the Citywide CPR Training and Certification available in your area.
