What is CPR?
CPR, or cardiopulmonary resuscitation, is an emergency life-saving procedure used on someone who is not breathing and has no pulse. A trained rescuer fills the victim's lungs with air and administers chest compressions to pump blood from the heart through the body. Thousands of lives are saved each year through the timely use of CPR. CPR is a procedure that must be properly and promptly performed until emergency medical help arrives.
If you have sudden cardiac arrest outside of a hospital -- as 225,000 Americans do every year -- you have only a 2 percent to 5 percent chance of being successfully revived, the AHA says. Your chance of survival improves if someone gives you CPR four to six minutes after you collapse and you receive advanced cardiac life support, such as an electric shock to the heart provided by an automated external defibrillator (AED), within minutes.
Who Should Know CPR?
Certain people need to know how to perform CPR to do their jobs. Medical professionals - from nurses and doctors to paramedics and emergency medicine technicians - must know CPR. Lifeguards, child-care workers, school coaches, childcare providers, etc. Many parents don't know how to perform CPR on their children or babies. Other adults who have family members with medical conditions such as heart disease sometimes know CPR, too.
Many people - maybe you - may want to learn how to do CPR just in case you need to use it some day. You can never tell when a medical emergency will happen and it feels good to know that you could help.
You might think that a cardiac arrest is caused only heart disease, but there are other reasons that can cause cardiac arrest:
Heart Attack
Suffocation
Electrocution
Hypothermia
Anaphylaxis
Hemorrhage
Poisoning
Drowning
Choking
Drug Overdose
SIDSSmoke Inhalation
Accidents