Forget about mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. Two new studies say chest compressions alone are just as good in rescuing victims of sudden cardiac arrest.
The studies are published in today's New England Journal of Medicine and are the latest to suggest that traditional CPR should be simplified -- call 9-1-1, do hard and fast chest pumps, and don't worry about the forced breathing.
The simpler approach is not only as effective, it's believed to encourage more bystanders to lend a hand. And as one survivor tells Marketplace, that's what's most important: "The truth is, if someone collapses from cardiac arrest, unless something happens they're dead. So what you try can't make things worse."
Marketplace examined the issue of sudden cardiac arrest and CPR back in the fall of 2004 with our story, Heart of the Matter. At the time we uncovered some shocking facts: about 100 people a day have a cardiac arrest in Canada... and 95 of them die. In part, that's because so few victims of sudden cardiac arrest are ever given CPR.
To illustrate, we asked Toronto's Emergency Medical Services to crunch its own numbers to see how rare it is for bystanders to perform CPR. Over a three year period paramedics responded to 7,863 cardiac arrests. Records show bystanders in Toronto did CPR only 607 times -- less than eight percent of the time.
Our story was among the first to call for a simpler approach to CPR. In fact, reporter Wendy Mesley had a memorable exchange with a representative of the Heart and Stroke Foundation over its seeming reluctance to change CPR guidelines in the face of such staggering statistics. A year after our story aired, Heart and Stroke released new guidelines suggesting bystanders focus on chest compressions. Today, that recommendation was underscored.
You can watch the full episode of "Heart of the Matter" here:
The studies are published in today's New England Journal of Medicine and are the latest to suggest that traditional CPR should be simplified -- call 9-1-1, do hard and fast chest pumps, and don't worry about the forced breathing.
The simpler approach is not only as effective, it's believed to encourage more bystanders to lend a hand. And as one survivor tells Marketplace, that's what's most important: "The truth is, if someone collapses from cardiac arrest, unless something happens they're dead. So what you try can't make things worse."
Marketplace examined the issue of sudden cardiac arrest and CPR back in the fall of 2004 with our story, Heart of the Matter. At the time we uncovered some shocking facts: about 100 people a day have a cardiac arrest in Canada... and 95 of them die. In part, that's because so few victims of sudden cardiac arrest are ever given CPR.
To illustrate, we asked Toronto's Emergency Medical Services to crunch its own numbers to see how rare it is for bystanders to perform CPR. Over a three year period paramedics responded to 7,863 cardiac arrests. Records show bystanders in Toronto did CPR only 607 times -- less than eight percent of the time.
Our story was among the first to call for a simpler approach to CPR. In fact, reporter Wendy Mesley had a memorable exchange with a representative of the Heart and Stroke Foundation over its seeming reluctance to change CPR guidelines in the face of such staggering statistics. A year after our story aired, Heart and Stroke released new guidelines suggesting bystanders focus on chest compressions. Today, that recommendation was underscored.
You can watch the full episode of "Heart of the Matter" here:
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This is good to know. I can do CPR but not necessarily the resuscitation.