Hands only CPR

The recent AHA Science Advisory recommending Hands Only CPR is intended to promote more bystander CPR. Bystander CPR refers to CPR performed by individuals who, by chance, find themselves witnessing an adult collapse. This adult needs resuscitation to survive. The Science Advisory recommending Hands Only CPR was based on the belief that further simplification of CPR would encourage more citizens to act in an emergency. This is a laudable goal. The CPR certification card has stood too long between the victim of cardiac arrest and his potential rescuer.

There are approximately 300 million people in the United States. There are approximately 325,000 cardiac arrests/year or about 900 cardiac arrests/day. Therefore, approximately .1% of the US population will have a cardiac arrest each year.

Approximately 17 Million people receive CPR training each year, or approximately 5 % of the population.

Therefore the likelihood that an individual suffering a cardiac arrest will be in the vicinity of someone trained to perform CPR is statistically improbable. At the current rate of trained rescuers, 1 out of every 20,000 cardiac arrests will be witnessed by a trained rescuer. Not as unlikely as being struck by lightning or winning the lottery, but unlikely nonetheless. More….

This does not mean that CPR training is no longer necessary or that conventional CPR is not as effective as Hands Only CPR. Quite the contrary. It means that the scientists and medical professionals who represent the American Heart Association feel so strongly that CPR is a life saving skill, that they wish to encourage any performance of CPR , or partial performance CPR over no action at all. It means that the science is so clear that something about doing CPR is beneficial to the victim, that initiating only the basics of resuscitation by providing chest compressions is still beneficial. More….

Odelia Braun, M.D. J. D