Easier If You Turn Your Face Inside-Out

[livingdeb]

Today R. and I took a class in adult CPR at UT's mass CPR training. I was very impressed when I took this mass CPR training three years ago. This year it was less impressive.

First, instead of sending us to large mats in a large gymnasium with three other students, a teacher, and two manikins, we were sent to a regular classroom with 32 students, 3 teachers, and 16 manikins. There were no mats, and the floors had not been recently mopped.

Second, although we were taking the second session, several bugs had not yet been worked out with the supplies.

Also, I got a paper cut when someone tried to hand me the instruction sheet but realized they were handing me two and didn't want me to take two. I actually bled.

Then they didn't have R's card ready after we waited in a long line, nor after we came back and they had brought fresh cards from the printer.

It was still a good class. Several things have changed since I last took this class, and some of these changes happened in the last year.

The main change is that the procedure for CPR is now to do 30 compressions instead of 15 for every two breaths. This is because scientists have found that it takes several compressions to get the blood going, and it's best to interrupt compressions as infrequently as possible.

Bizarrely, if you can't detect any breathing in an unconscious adult, you are now supposed to immediately give two breaths and begin doing compressions without ever checking for a pulse. We were told this was because when adults aren't breathing, and you can get breaths into them (i.e., they are not choking), then it's pretty safe to assume the problem is cardiac arrest. That's scary to me because I have very few risk factors for heart attack (love of donuts, pretty much), and most of the risk factors for osteoporosis (including little tiny bones). I would appreciate people checking for a pulse before they start breaking all my ribs.

I wonder if this is a US thing because on the average we are all getting so huge, or if it really is true for adults in general. Well, if you find me unconscious, you have my permission to check for a pulse before doing compressions. But apparently, getting started with the compressions ASAP is one of the keys to survival, so you should probably skip the pulse checking for anyone else.

Another change from three years ago is that our manikins clicked when our compressions were deep enough, and clicked differently when they were too deep.

Another change is that not only did we each get those plastic mouth shields (or, as R. likes to call them, shower curtains), we also got our own personal molded face to put on the manikin. You have to attach the back of the face to the breathing tube, and that is easier to do if you first turn your face inside-out.

I'd still recommend this class, but now I'd also recommend you bring knee pads or a cushion. Also, it's good to keep your stomach muscles in shape; we had to do CPR for two minutes straight twice.

Comments

[tamaraster.livejournal.com]

Thanks for posting about the change to 30 compressions. I still had 15 in my head from learning this in health class in high school.