New AHA Guidelines - Hands-Only CPR for laypeople

[berkeman]

New AHA Guidelines -- Hands-Only CPR for laypeople

I'd heard that this might be coming, and now the American Heart Association has made the official announcement:

http://www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=3011764

CPR and Emergency Cardiovascular Care


Hands-Only CPR: An initiative that can help save more lives

On March 31, an important advisory statement on “hands-only” (compression-only) CPR was published in Circulation. This statement clarifies the 2005 AHA Guidelines for CPR and ECC, which included the recommendation that laypersons – or bystanders – should perform hands-only CPR if they are unable or unwilling to provide rescue breaths.

What is hands-only CPR and what does it mean for you? Visit our Hands-Only CPR Consumer Web Site to find out more about this lifesaving initiative.

If you are an AHA instructor or Training Center, visit the Instructor Network to view the instructor Web cast and download the tools you’ll need to incorporate Hands-Only CPR into your classes.

Seems like a good move to encourage more laypeople to get involved. I'm still going to be bagging anybody I do CPR on, but not many people carry a BVM in their vehicle (or are trained on how to use it).

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[Moonbear]

I've been hearing about that too.

I think it bears pointing out that this is not meant to replace CPR as many of us learned it, but rather to provide simple instruction to the untrained when there is nobody with training available to assist, or when someone is concerned about the risk of mouth-to-mouth contact. The other key point this campaign is trying to get across is that many untrained bystanders who attempt to assist with CPR do not push hard enough to give effective compressions, so they should not be afraid to push as hard as they can.

 

[jim mcnamara]

so they should not be afraid to push as hard as they can

A fractured rib is better than brain death - except in states without Good Samaritan Laws.