While poll participants were confident in their ability to help someone in a non-life-threatening emergency, like fainting, 41 percent felt unprepared to administer hands-only CPR, a technique that can double or even triple a cardiac arrest victim’s chance of survival, according to the American Heart Association (AHA). “With or without giving mouth-to-mouth, the most important thing is to perform chest compressions,” says Jose Torradas, MD, an emergency physician at St. Mary Medical Center in Langhorne, Pennsylvania, and an American College of Emergency Physicians spokesperson. “Chest compressions move the oxygen in the blood to the brain, and that’s what matters most.” On average it takes about six to nine minutes for EMS to arrive, says Dr. Torradas, which often isn’t soon enough to save a life. “During cardiac arrest, brain cells get injured the moment they don’t get oxygen, so after 5 to 10 minutes, the chances of survival are slim to none.” Research shows that hands-only CPR can help save a life. According to a large Swedish study published in April 2019 in the journal Circulation, hands-only CPR doubled a person’s odds of surviving at least 30 days after cardiac arrest. “People think they might hurt someone [when performing chest compressions], but actually you’re much better off performing CPR on someone who doesn’t need it than not performing it on someone who needs it,” says Charles Pozner, MD, an emergency physician and an associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School’s department of emergency medicine in Boston.
What Happens During Cardiac Arrest?
Cardiac arrest is an abrupt loss of heart function that occurs when the heart’s electrical system malfunctions. Although a heart attack is often mistaken for cardiac arrest, it is not the same thing. A heart attack is caused by the blockage of blood flow to the heart. Unlike cardiac arrest, in which a person is unresponsive and loses consciousness, a person having a heart attack is usually able to talk and breathe. People who have heart disease are at higher risk for cardiac arrest. But it can happen to people who appear healthy, too. About 9 out of 10 people who have cardiac arrest outside a hospital setting don’t survive it, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Since about 350,000 cardiac arrests occur outside of the hospital each year, that means hundreds of thousands of people can die from the condition annually, according to the AHA. Cardiac arrest is often fatal without taking immediate steps like administering CPR or using a defibrillator. Unfortunately, only 46 percent of people who experience cardiac arrest get the immediate help they need before professional help arrives, reports the AHA.
How Do You Know if Someone Is Experiencing Cardiac Arrest?
If you suspect someone is suffering from cardiac arrest, first try to rouse the person by tapping them and shouting. If they are unresponsive, yell for someone to call 911. If you’re alone, make the call yourself. Then check for a pulse and see if the person is breathing. If they aren’t breathing or are having trouble breathing, such as gasping for air, you should begin chest compressions until help arrives. When someone on the street collapses, it’s likely they’ll have oxygen in their blood and their lungs, notes Dr. Pozner. In other words, chest compressions can move the blood and whatever oxygen is there through the bloodstream and to the brain. “Every second counts,” he says. If you do perform CPR and the person starts to breathe again, Torradas recommends laying the person on their side, also called a recovery position, and wait with them for EMS.
How to Perform Hands-Only CPR
Hands-only CPR involves pushing hard and fast in the center of the chest at the rate of 100 to 120 pushes per minute. One easy way to do this is to time your pushes to the beat of songs like Beyoncé’s “Crazy in Love,” Lady Gaga’s “Just Dance,” or “Staying Alive,” by the Bee Gees. There’s even a “Songs to do CPR to” playlist on Spotify. To learn more, check out the 90-second instructional video on the AHA’s website.
