Breakdown of CPR

At this point, we found the person is not breathing. So, if we are on our own, the most important thing we must do now is leave them and go and call the emergency services. If there's somebody else there, then we can send someone so we can tell someone to go and call 999. we are going to ask them for an ambulance, we will tell them that we have got somebody who's collapsed, unconscious, non-breathing. we are doing CPR on this person shortly. We also want them to tell the emergency services exactly where you are, and also to come back and tell me what they've said. Because that's the first aider, you need to know what the emergency services have said when they are going to be here. Also, tell the person to see if there's an AED, an automatic external defibrillator. It's a very, very easy piece of equipment to use. This is what we need for this person, we need to be able to shock the heart and hopefully, we can get the heart beating again. If there isn't an AED on the premises, then the emergency services are going to bring one for us.

So, once we have done this, we need to start and we know help is on its way, we are going to start chest compressions. To do this, we are going to push down on the centre of the chest, directly onto the breastbone. we are going to be using the part of the hand here and here and we are interlocking our fingers. Placing the hands right in the centre of the chest with the shoulders above and the elbow straight, and then we are going to push down 30 times, depth of five to six centimetres at a rate of 100 to 120 compressions per minute. That's roughly two a second. So, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30. Once we have done the 30 compressions, then we need to open the airway again, so head on the forehead under the chin. We need to squeeze the nose and we are going to blow into the mouth. The reason we are squeezing the nose is so that when we blow the air into the mouth, it doesn't come straight back out the nose. we are delivering two breaths just around about one second, just until we see the chest rise. The idea here is not to push as much air in as possible.

If we blow too much air in, it's going to go straight into the stomach, and eventually, the person is going to then regurgitate that up as vomit. So, open the airway, squeeze the nose, two breaths, and then straight back on to compressions. So we are doing 30 compressions, two breaths, 30 2, 30 2, and we keep going until the emergency services arrive until there's someone else to hand over to. So, this is quite strenuous, you may well find it's best to hand over every two minutes to someone else. Now, it doesn't matter if that person's not qualified in CPR, you can soon teach them. It's a very, very easy skill. If the person did show signs of recovery, again, you would stop. And also maybe need to stop if you're just too tired to continue. So, this person needs CPR, we need to get the oxygenated blood pumping around the body. It's not as effective as normal the functioning of the heart, but hopefully with effective CPR, by the time the paramedics arrive, they can resuscitate the person using defibrillator and drugs and there is a chance this person could survive.