First Aid Tips: Basic Guide To Cpr

That said, if you are curious as to the steps involved in CPR, they will be listed and explained here. CPR is basically a three step process, designed to stimulate the heart and lungs to resume normal functioning if they have stopped. If you are trained in CPR and are the first to get to the victim, these are the steps that you would follow.

1) Call for Help. When arriving at the victim, check to see if they are responsive. Gently shake them and call out to them to see if you can get some sort of a motion or auditory response. (Sometimes the victim might grunt or make other noises caused by abnormal breathing, but this is not considered to be a response.) If there is no response from the victim, call 911 or local emergency services, or send someone else to get help. While CPR is designed to save lives, a person who has experienced cardiac arrest is in need of professional medical help as soon as it can get to them.

2) Breathe. Tilt the victim's head back slightly and place your ear near their mouth. Listen for breath and try to feel for any air that may be blowing onto your skin. Watch the victim's chest to see if it is rising and falling with their breathing. If you determine that the victim is not breathing, pinch their nose and press your mouth to theirs. Blow into their mouth until you see their chest rise, and release so that they can expel the air. Blow again, and release. Each breath should take approximately 2 seconds. (As a note, several travel and car first aid kits now contain mouth screens that can be used in rescue breathing so that you do not actually make mouth-to-mouth contact. This is to lessen the chance of disease passing from one person to the other, and also to protect you in case they should throw up.)

3) Pump. Check for a pulse. Listen for a heartbeat. If you cannot find a pulse or heartbeat, and the victim is still not breathing, begin chest compressions. Find the area where the ribs come together with your fingers, and move up from that point around the space of 2 fingers. Place the heel of one hand on their chest, and lace the fingers of the other hand through the fingers of the first. Press in on the breastbone approximately 1 1 /2" to 2", 15 times in rapid succession. You'll want to be pressing at a rate of around 100 pumps per second, so you'll want to do your 15 pumps in around 10 seconds.

Once you have completed step 3, go back to step 2 and begin again checking for breathing. If they are still not breathing, continue through steps 2 and 3 until they are revived or until professional medical help arrives. Please note that if the victim begins to show signs of reviving and becoming responsive, you should discontinue chest compressions and breathing immediately. Performing CPR on a conscious and healthy person may result in injury or potentially dangerous complications.