Picture yourself walking in a park on a wonderful day when a person collapses before your eyes on the spot holding their chest. Panic ensues, and you wonder, “What can I do to help?”. The answer is CPR (Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation) a simple but effective approach that can make all the difference between life and death or brain damage and not. It can prevent someone from slipping away.
The Critical Minutes
When someones heart stops or beats irregularly their brain is starved of oxygen. In such cases, time is money. According to the American Heart Association (AHA), brain cells die in only four to six minutes if there is no oxygen, causing permanent damage to the brain and, in severe cases, death. This is where the use of CPR as an important bridge to till professional help arrives as a rescue mechanism.
What Is CPR?
CPR is a combination of chest compressions and rescue breaths. It assists in sustaining the blood and oxygen flow to the brain and vital organs. When done right chest compressions work as an artificial heart, filling the body with blood. For their part rescue breaths replace the oxygen supply. Together both these components function to preserve the life of the brain and other organs.
CPR: A Simple but Vital Skill
The wonderful thing about CPR in Chicago is that it is a skill that anyone can learn. Becoming a medical professional isn’t necessary to save a life. There are many CPR courses available and many organization provide training at no cost or little cost. These courses will help you learn when CPR can be needed and how to perform it right. Keep in mind the earliest that CPR is performed, the more likely one is to avoid brain damage or death.
Averting Brain Damage
Many situations can cause brain damage, which ranges from cardiac arrest, choking to drowning. In each of these cases, rendering CPR in time will save life or death.
- Cardiac Arrest: When the muscle stops functioning, timely CPR can keep the oxygenated blood flowing in the brain, thus buying time for medical personnel to arrive and return normal heart activity. Even if heart revived but the brain is damaged if CPR is not given.
- Choking: A person who stops is also in danger of having his brain damaged by lack of oxygen. Abdominal thrusts (Heimlich maneuver) and CPR can save the victim’s life from a choke and reduce the risk of a brain injury.
- Drowning: CPR is vital when someone is submerged in water. Fluid – water in lung areas – may disrupt oxygen exchange and brain damage can occur in minutes. By doing CPR, you can remove water from the lungs and bring oxygen flow which will increase the chances of survival.
- Preventing Death
Although prevention of brain damage is a key objective of CPR, it’s absolutely important to understand that CPR can prevent death too. The survival rates increase drastically if CPR is delivered at a fast pace. It usually gains precious time till professional help arrives with advanced life support.
Finally, Therefore CPR is an effective instrument that can preserve lives, avoid harm to the brain and stop dying. It’s a skill that should be learned by all people, as you never know when you may need to know it,损害 someone’s life potentially depends on it.
