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ACM Minutes, Wednesday, June 12, 2024, 7:00 pm

Topics: CPR 'training' (unofficial)

Present: Emily, Scott, Kris (guest), Lila, Vicky, Joe, Lynda, Laura

CPR 'Training'

Emily is trained in CPR but isn't a trainer, so this isn't officially a training.  A number of people in the community are or have been certified; we want to increase the number certified by having people attend official trainings.

Utah has a Good Samaritan law.  You won't get in trouble if you are trying to save the person.  Do Not Resuscitate orders are applicable only to medical professionals in a hospital setting.

If someone is down on the ground or slumped in a chair, check it out. In the first five to ten seconds,

  • Talk to them, "Are you okay, [name]?"  Call them "Annie" if you don't know their name.
  • See if they are rousable,
  • Check their pulse. The carotid is the easiest to find.
  • Check for respiration.  Hold your hand in front of their mouth.

  • Check whether the person is wearing an emergency bracelet. 

If they are nonresponsive and don't have a pulse, call 911 and put the phone on speaker.  Note the time you found the person, to tell the emergency responders.

If a second person is available, send them to get the AED and/or find immediate help.

Note: The bell in front of the common house is a community-wide call for a meeting, a meal, or an emergency. Blowing a whistle is another emergency signal.  Discourage children from ringing the bell ("Don't ring the bell unless it's an emergency or you have enough food to feed twenty people"). 

You will start chest compressions. 

Get ready:

  • If nobody is available to send for the AED, don't bother with it, as getting the AED and setting it up will use critical time the person doesn't have. 
  • If it is winter, remove any heavy sweaters or coats the person is wearing, since they will cushion your compressions too much.
  • If the person is sitting, get behind them and slide your arms under their arm pits.  Ease them to the floor or other hard surface.
  • Don't worry about a pillow for their head if one isn't immediately available.

To do compressions:

  • Lay the person on a hard surface like the floor.
  • Kneel beside the person. Find the sternum, between the nipples. 
  • Link your hands. A common position is to put one on top of the other, with the top hand's fingers curled down between the lower fingers.
  • Press down about 2" then lift up, all the way to allow recoil.  If you are doing it correctly, you will bruise them and may crack their ribs. Better broken ribs than no oxygen for several minutes. Ribs heal! 
  • Do 100 compressions per minute, which is the speed of The BeeGees song "Staying Alive." 
  • Do thirty compressions then check whether they are breathing. If they aren't, give them two breaths. If you aren't comfortable doing breaths, the chest compressions are more important anyway. 
  • To do breaths, go to the person's head.  Tilt the head back. Take a deep breath, breathe into their mouth.  Take a deep breath, breathe into their mouth.  Resume compressions.

It quickly becomes exhausting.  If someone else is available, trade off every 2 minutes.  If multiple people are available, line them up to take turns doing compressions. A person who isn't doing compressions can keep track of time.  (At 100 compressions per minute, two minutes is six or seven cycles of 30 compressions plus breaths.) 

Keep doing compressions until the person is breathing, until the AED asks you to stop, or the EMTs arrive, which can be ten or fifteen minutes. 

To use an AED:

  • Pull the case open. Sometimes the lid is designed to slide under the neck and shoulders to tilt the head back and provide a hard surface for compressions.
  • Remove the person's upper clothes.  The pads must be on bare skin.
  • The adult pads are connected to the AED. Switch to the pediatric pads if the person is less than about eleven or twelve years of age or smaller than a small adult.
  • Position one pad above the left breast and the other below the right breast.  Press the power button on the AED.
  • The AED will check for heart rhythm. It will say something like "Analyzing". Continue doing compressions unless the machine asks you to stop.
  • If the AED decides a shock will be helpful, it will say so.  It will say to stand clear.  Remove your hands from the person and move a little away.  Once you are clear, press the button for the shock.

If a person already has a pacer or defibrillator, you can still use an AED.  If their heart isn't beating, the pacer isn't working.  An AED can figure out whether it can shock the person.  Not all heart problems are shockable.

You don't need to call EMT for a seizure as long as the person is breathing.

On a baby, use your fingers or thumbs for CPR and don't press as hard, because you can blow out a lung. Usually your arm is strong enough to hold the baby and you don't need to put them on the ground, unless you are using the AED. If you put them on the ground, put padding under them.  The compression speed is slightly faster, but "Staying Alive" still works.  The AED can tell if you are using a pediatric pad and will reduce the shock.

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