The air we breathe in travels to
our lungs where oxygen is picked up by our blood and then pumped by the heart
to our tissue and organs. When a person experiences cardiac arrest - whether
due to heart failure in adults and the elderly or an injury such as near
drowning, electrocution or severe trauma in a child - the heart goes from a
normal beat to an arrhythmic pattern called ventricular fibrillation, and
eventually ceases to beat altogether.
This prevents oxygen from
circulating throughout the body, rapidly killing cells and tissue. In essence,
Cardio (heart) Pulmonary (lung) Resuscitation (revive, revitalize) serves as an
artificial heartbeat and an artificial respirator.
CPR may not save the victim even
when performed properly, but if started within 4 minutes of cardiac arrest and
defibrillation is provided within 10 minutes, a person has a 40% chance of
survival.
Invented in 1960, CPR is a simple
but effective procedure that allows almost anyone to sustain life in the first
critical minutes of cardiac arrest. CPR provides oxygenated blood to the brain
and the heart long enough to keep vital organs alive until emergency equipment
arrives.
To make learning CPR easier, a
system was devised that makes remembering it as simple as A-B-C:
• Airway
• Breathing
• Circulation
No comments:
Post a Comment