CHEST PRESSING
SAVES LIVES
This is Bill White with the VOA Special English Science Report.
A life-saving treatment called cardiopulmonary resuscitation, or CPR, can save people suffering from cardiac arrest. This happens when a person’s heart stops pumping and he or she is no longer breathing.
CPR includes two parts: bowing air into a person’s mouth to force air into the lungs, and pressing on the chest to get the heart pumping. CPR is done to keep blood flowing through the body until emergency medical help arrives.
Now a new study has found that pressing on the chest [is] just as effective as giving full CPR. The findings were published in The New England Journal of Medicine.
Millions of people have learned CPR. However, fewer than half of all cardiac arrest victims in the United States get CPR before emergency medical workers arrive. Many Americans object to blowing air into the mouth of a stranger for fear of infection. Experts say more victims could be saved if CPR was performed more often.
Researchers at the University of Washington organized the new study. It was based on the results of telephone calls to medical rescue workers in the Seattle area. More than 500 people called to report a person was suffering from cardiac arrest.
About half of the callers were told to press the chest of the victim until emergency crews arrived. The other half of the callers were given directions for full CPR. They were told to blow into the victim’s mouth and to press the chest. The researchers say the full directions required almost one-and-one-half minutes longer to explain.
Among the group given full CPR directions, about ten percent of the patients survived. In the group given directions for chest pressing only, more than 14 percent survived.
The researchers noted that chest pressing alone may be the best way for someone not trained in CPR to help a person suffering from cardiac arrest.
The New England Journal of Medicine published a commentary with the study. It said anyone who sees a person suffering from cardiac arrest should quickly start CPR with chest pressing alone.
However, the American Heart Association says the study’s findings do not mean that the mouth-to-mouth treatment should be stopped. The group says people should be taught both parts of CPR.
This VOA Special English Science Report was written by George Grow. This is Bill White.
Source: Voice of America, 6/14/2000
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