Would you know what to do in an emergency? For Paul Connolly, the answer was "No". So the father-to-be signed up to learn some life-saving techniques
I'd often wondered how I'd react if I had to help someone who'd stopped breathing or who'd had a suspected heart attack. With their life in my hands, I could only imagine I'd be trying to suppress a rising sense of panic. I mean, I'd learnt CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation) an age ago – way back in high school – and could barely recall the lesson, let alone the correct ratio of breaths to chest compressions.
As I was soon due to be a father for the first time, it began weighing on my mind: would I confidently know what to do if the unthinkable happened and I was forced to give my child CPR? The disturbing conclusion was "not really" and that's not good enough.
So I decided to contact the St John Ambulance service in Melbourne. If anyone could teach me the basics of CPR, it was them.
As it turns out, CPR is not nearly as difficult as I'd been thinking. Indeed, my instructor Kylie Munro, a 12-year veteran of St John Ambulance, explains that CPR procedures were changed in 2005 making them, she suggests, simpler and easier to remember. We shall see.
To begin, we brush up on the basics. Before any CPR technique is attempted in an emergency, you need to begin what St John Ambulance refers to as the DRABCD action plan. In short, check first for danger (D) to you, to others and the casualty. Only when you know the area is safe should you check the casualty for a response (R). If the casualty doesn't respond to vocal and physical prompts, call 000 or have someone else do it.
Next, you need to check the casualty's airway (A) and remove any blockage. Then look and feel for signs of breathing (B). If the casualty is not breathing you need to give two initial breaths. If, after that, the casualty is still not breathing, then perform CPR (C) while you wait for an ambulance and a defibrillator (D) to arrive.
Apparently, as part of the new technique, you no longer need to attempt to find a pulse before performing CPR; finding a pulse is not only difficult to do at times but there is no evidence to support the previously held theory that performing chest compressions on someone whose heart is still beating will harm them.
That said, we're ready to start performing CPR. OK, here goes. I should start by delivering two breaths into a rubbery, life-sized training manikin. But how hard should they be?
"We are not trying to blow the casualty up," Kylie advises. "For an adult casualty the breaths should be like normal exhalations. For an infant they are small puffs."
I kneel on the ground beside the manikin, bend over and begin. To aid the delivery of air, I tilt its head back as instructed, with one hand in a kind of pistol grip under the chin, the other on the dummy's forehead, my fingers pinching the nostrils closed. I then deliver two breaths with my mouth completely surrounding its lips and turn my head each time to see its chest move. "If you are doing it properly you should always see the rise and fall of the chest," Kylie says.
Roger that. Without delay I follow up the two breaths with 30 compressions. Nowadays, 30:2 is the compressions-to-breaths ratio recommended around the world. Better still, the ratio isn't different for a child or an infant, which helps enormously. In such cases, only the depth of the compression changes.
To find the optimal compression spot, I follow the dummy's ribs up to the point they meet. I then place two fingers of my right hand on that spot and the heel of my left hand above it, towards the neck. After that, I lift my right hand and sit it atop my left, interlocking my fingers. Now I'm ready to begin.
I follow Kylie's advice and lock my elbows and use the rocking motion of my body, rather than my arms, to exert pressure. How much pressure? For an adult, you press to a depth of about 5cm; for a child 2.5cm; and for an infant it's just 1cm. And, in the last case, you would use two fingers rather than the heel of your palm while, for the breathing component, your mouth should also enclose the baby's nose.
When I settle into a rhythm, performing roughly two compressions a second, I'm alarmed to discover that my manikin's chest buckles in and out quite dramatically. If he were real, I'd surely be cracking a rib or two. I begin to panic. Am I pressing too hard? Apparently not: breaking ribs during CPR is more common than not.
"If you end up saving someone's life, a few broken ribs is a small price to pay," Kylie says.
Phew. For the sake of reality, we perform CPR for minutes on end, constantly reminding ourselves of the 30:2 ratio.
After only a minute it starts to become tiring and I wonder whether I could keep up the pace in an emergency, but Kylie assures me that in a real-life situation my adrenaline would help keep me going until the casualty regained consciousness or an ambulance arrived.
She points out that if someone has stopped breathing due to cardiac arrest (not that you'd know this for sure at the time), CPR alone will not restart their heart and bring them to consciousness. All it will do is stimulate the heart and keep the blood flowing around their body until an ambulance arrives with a defibrillator – the device that will literally shock their heart back into action. That being the case, if a casualty isn't regaining consciousness during CPR, you would need to keep going until an ambulance arrives.
But what happens, I wonder, if during the heat of the moment, you panic and can't remember the exact procedure? I'm relieved to discover that the experts now advocate simply doing whatever you can. As Kylie says, "What's the worse that can happen? If you do nothing, they will die."
While it's comforting to know that some effort is always better than none, the casualty's chances of survival obviously improve if you know what you're doing. And, thankfully, now I do.
When I leave the St John Ambulance offices hours later, I'm feeling confident and pleased with myself. While I haven't given life to my manikin (I'm no miracle worker) I do feel certain that if I ever had to administer CPR to anyone – and I hope
I never do – I'm as prepared as I could possibly be. And that's all anyone can ask.
SELFCHECK
30:2
30 compressions:
2 mouth-to-mouth breaths.
Repeat until help arrives
- For more information on St John Ambulance first-aid courses, visit www.stjohn.org.au or call 1300 360 455. Professionally taught CPR lessons cost from $50 for four hours.
Paul Connolly is now the proud father of a baby girl named Abbie.
CPR12 LEARN AT HOME
The CPR123 personal learning programme from St John's Ambulance enables you to learn or refresh the life-saving skills of CPR. The kit ($43.95) includes an inflatable manikin, booklet and instructional DVD so that you can develop CPR skills in your own time at home.
HealthSmart staff road-tested the kit to see how easy it was to follow. Are we all confident resusciators, or just a bunch of blowhards? Read our verdicts here. |
