Learning First Aid: What to do until medical help arrives_美文

Learning First Aid: What to do until medical help arrives

PAT BODNAR: CPR is cardiopulmonary resuscitation. It forces air into the lungs and pumps blood and oxygen to the brain. Doctors say CPR greatly increases the chances that a person whose heart stops will survive. It increases the chances that he or she will suffer little or no brain damage.

The American Heart Association suggests two ways of helping. One combines the use of hands to pump the victim’s chest with rescue breathing. The other method is called “Hands-Only CPR.”

BOB DOUGHTY: “Hands-Only” is for people who are unwilling or unable to perform rescue breathing. Some people fear infection. Others say they are afraid of making the patient worse.

But an expert in emergency medicine says a person cannot be worse than dead. Dr. Michael Sayre works at Ohio State University. He strongly urges people in contact with a victim to take action.

PAT BODNAR: The American Heart Association tells how to take that action. It says you can recognize a person needing CPR because the person has collapsed. He or she is unconscious -- unable to communicate or react to surroundings or speech. His or her skin has lost color. The person is not breathing. If such conditions describe the situation, chances are the heart has stopped beating.

You should act by calling for help, or sending someone else. Even if you cannot do mouth-to-mouth rescue breathing, you can perform Hands-Only CPR. You can do chest compressions that help to keep blood flowing to the brain, heart and other organs.