God bless this kid, he deserves all the credit for pulling that guy out of the pool. That's probably what saved the guy's life.
However...
"Patients in previous studies have cited television as a large source of their belief that rates of survival after CPR vary between 19% and 75%, whereas actual rates of survival of CPR range from an average of 12% for out-of-hospital cardiac arrests to 24–40% for in-hospital arrests."
You don't attempt CPR until you confirm that the person doesn't have a pulse. The angle up on the edge of the pool and the way the kid was doing compressions were not doing anything. Trust me, I've seen and done effective chest compressions and that shit is HARD. A 12yo tapping on someone's chest might be well-meaning, but it's not CPR
That’s definitely long enough to sustain brain damage and usually the upper threshold for bringing someone back. There’s no minimum time you must wait before attempting CPR though.
If their heart is not beating then you perform chest compressions. If they’re not breathing then you perform breaths for them. You never perform one or the other if their body is performing it already.
There’s some argument about the breathing part of CPR. If the event was acute and recent, like someone collapsing while standing next to you, then there’s some modern guidance that breaths aren’t necessary, since there’s enough oxygen stored in their blood already and pulmonary compression could be enough to sustain them until first responders arrive. If the event was an unknown time period, or in this case 6 minutes prior, then they probably need breaths too.
I saw the “they don’t teach that anymore!” claim Walter White made in Breaking Bad about the breaths and looked it up. There’s a lot of confusion about that proposition and the addition has probably caused more harm than good, since now a lot of people think that it’s never required, which is false.
It’s important to remember that in cases where CPR is actually needed, the person is already dead, or in the process of dying. You cannot do more harm. You must use extreme force to actually compress the heart. You will break their ribs and probably their sternum, but since they will die without assistance, broken bones are a better outcome assuming they survive without severe brain damage.
CPR isn’t like in the movies where it “revives” people from unconsciousness. Your job is to manually pump the heart by breaking the cartilage that holds the ribs to the sternum and using the sternum like a pressure plate to force blood through the heart. The oxygenated blood will then continue to circulate feeding the brain and helping to prevent damage while emergency crews with defibrillators and actual medical equipment can be brought in to place them on life support.
It’s critical to understand the purpose, you’re not going to be bringing anyone back with CPR, but you just might keep them from coming back a vegetable if you do the compressions correctly until help arrives.
Even if you’re not able to access their airway or provide breaths, merely the act of correct compressions continuously applied is usually enough to keep the unconscious brain supplied with oxygen. Provided help arrives within about ten minutes that is. This is why the “ABC’s” of CPR have been changed to CAB, after the realization that chest compressions are the single most important factor in CPR.
If you can give breaths you should, but keeping the blood flowing is your upmost priority.
Last time I was taught, I was told not to bother with breathing for them (unless help is going to be massively delayed). It’s better to keep a steady rhythm on the heart. The act of doing CPR will move enough air in and out of the lungs.
The way I understand it is that CPR is for a dead person.
You’re resuscitating via the heart and lungs which aren’t working. The chances of pulling someone back from the brink are very slim unless you’re there at the exact moment the person needs it.
You’re just helping to push oxygen and oxygenated blood to the organs to keep them alive for a few more moments before the emergency crew gets there to take over.
I’ve personally performed CPR in and out of the hospital setting at least a few hundred times and have only seen it work twice to where the patient was stabilized and not needing CPR anymore.
Hmm, those numbers seem optimistic as well. I’ve had doctors and veterinarians tell me that survival rates with a good outcome are closer to 4%. Often they’ll be resuscitated, but succumb to their ailments shortly after. Other times they’re revived and stay alive, but suffer severe brain damage. If they survive and don’t have brain damage, they still have bruised organs and broken ribs from the procedure itself and will need further treatment. Basically everything I’ve heard about CPR from medical practitioners make it sound like an absolute last-ditch effort that rarely works.
The chances are good you’re just molesting a corpse. However, there is still the small chance you could pull off a full blown necromantic resurrection. I would take a 4% chance of raising the dead, so long as it’s safe. Even a partial success could make a big difference to someone’s life (or just their goodbye).
(My last CPR trainer was a little quirky. It sunk in well though.)
I've seen too many should-be-dead bodies dragged through years of medical torture after a crippling incident to be able to agree with that sentiment. There are worse things than death.
If a link is broken, but the title is known, I’ve heard that it’s possible to take keywords or to copy the title and use a search engine to find the link.
Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation. When you apply pressure to a patient’s chest at regular intervals (about one second between presses) and use your mouth to fill the patient’s lungs with air.
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