Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR): Would you perform CPR during a medical emergency?

General Public Health Discussions
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#1

Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR): Would you perform CPR during a medical emergency?

The frequency at which many Nigerians drop dead nowadays is alarming (Obokoh, 2020), many of us have heard stories about people who slumped and died unexpectedly. Although cardiac arrest-related deaths are not rare in Nigeria, cardiologists are concerned that they are more common than previously recognized.

A person is in cardiac arrest when their heart stops beating. The heart cannot pump blood to the rest of the body (e.g. the brain and lungs) and without treatment, death might occur in minutes.

Currently, about 9 out of 10 patients who experience a cardiac arrest outside of a hospital die (American Heart Association, 2018). Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), can help boost those odds and double or triple a person’s chances of survival if performed within the first few minutes following cardiac arrest.

CPR mimics the heart’s pumping action through chest compressions which aid in the circulation of blood throughout the body.

Image: How to perform CPR (MedicalNewsToday, 2020)

  • Have you ever performed CPR before? If yes, tell us about your experience
  • Would you provide CPR to a person experiencing cardiac arrest? If no, why not?
  • What do you believe is the primary reason that many people do not perform CPR in the event of a medical emergency? and what can be done to encourage them to do it?
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#2

Good write up @Mr_jorgej. I haven’t been in a situation where I had to perform CPR and I don’t know how I’ll react if I’m ever in that situation.
There are a few reasons I can give why many people do not perform CPR from personal observations and conversations. Things like not knowing CPR, religious reasons and some other people believe they might get infected from whatever the victim is suffering from.
Primarily, I think education and orientation would go a long way to change people’s mindsets and encourage more people to perform CPR when the need arises.

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#3

Hi @Geebee Thank you very much for your contribution I really appreciate it; you made some excellent suggestions. Education and orientation are extremely important, and when it comes to preventing infection during mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, simple chest compressions can be enough to help the victim. I also recommend putting clothing between your mouth and the victim’s mouth or using an object that can blow air into it.


Image 1; source google

Simply folding a piece of paper in this manner (image 1) allows you to blow air into the victim’s mouth, preventing mouth-to-mouth contact.

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