How to Perform CPR on an Adult

Chip Meyers: Hi, I am Chip Meyers with the Alexandria Fire Department and today we have been talking about CPR. Earlier, we have talked about the Heimlich Maneuver and also how to clear a foreign body airway obstruction in an unconscious person. Now, we are going to talk about what to do if somebody collapses in front of you say from cardiac arrest where their heart stops and how to perform CPR.

First thing we are going to do is we are going to do the ABCD of resuscitation and thats airway, breathing, circulation and defibrillation. So first thing I comp up, Hey are you okay? You okay? I want to make sure this person is just again not sleeping in the park, and make sure they are actually unconscious. There is no response. I dont see any movement. I dont see any breathing. I am going to activate the EMS system. I am going to say, Help, somebody call 911. I am going to point to somebody, You over there, go call 911. Come back when you are done. This way we know there is an ambulance on the way so that we can get help as soon as possible.

Now, I am going to open the airway and look, listen and feel for breathing. As I tilt the head back I put my hand on -- palm on the forehead, put my fingers here on the bony prominence of the chin and I tilt the head back and bring the tongue out of the airway and I am going to look, listen and feel for any breathing, looking at the chest, seeing if the chest is rising, I am listening for any air movement, seeing if I feel any air movement. If none of thats going to occur then I am going to deliver two breaths. Two nice full breaths enough air to get the chest to rise.

If you dont feel comfortable sticking your mouth on the mouth of another person you could use a commercially available pocket mask. You can get most of these at a pharmacy or some place like that and you basically place this to on the patients face. You tilt the head back but you are going to use your thumbs to help hold this on the persons face and then you are going to breathe inside. Still delivering two breaths.

Alright, so after the two breaths go in, we can look in for any signs of circulation. They are not moving. They are not talking. Their eyes didnt open up or anything like that, I am going to go ahead and perform compressions. I am going to bring my hand basically inline with their nipples right on their breast, about right here on the sternum and I am going to press it down 30 times. So, I am going to press hard, I am going to press fast and I am going to press it down about and inch-and-a-half to two inches. I am going to do this over and over, five times.

So, we do the 30 compressions with two ventilations. We do that five times and thats about two minutes. At about two minutes we are going to stop and look for any signs of circulation. Are they moving? Do their eyes open up? Are they breathing on their own? If you are going to bring somebody back typically with just CPR alone its usually in that first two minutes. If they dont come back then, thats when you are going to need other help. Maybe you are going to need probably the use of an automated external defibrillator which we will talk about in just a moment.

If you find yourself in a situation where you dont feel comfortable putting your mouth on the mouth of another person, you could do something called hands only CPR. Hands only CPR is, you are just doing compression thats off. You dont stop to actually give the ventilations. It does provide a little bit of a gas exchange, not a lot. Its not ideal. Its better to have the ventilations in there but its still better than nothing and that would be just compressing for about two minutes.

Okay, next we are going to talk about use of the automated external defibrillator.