Image via WikipediaJust saw on ABC Good Morning America, as well as on the web, new guidelines. Learn them: The average, untrained person can still save a life by focusing on chest compressions first, say new guidelines from the American Heart Association.
The simplified form of cardiopulmonary resuscitation, or CPR, focuses on giving chest compressions to keep the blood -- and the oxygen in the blood -- flowing to the heart and brain.
The group's advice comes on the heels of studies in the past year trumpeting that a compression-only approach is as good or better than compression plus mouth-to-mouth. It updates guidelines from 2005.
When someone collapses in cardiac arrest, people often don't start any type of CPR, but chest compressions alone are easy, and anyone can do it.
The American Heart Association recommends that if an adult is unresponsive and not breathing or is having occasional unusual breaths that sound like gasping, any bystander should first call 911 (or whatever the emergency number is in the area) and then begin chest compressions.
If someone else is nearby, send that person in search of an automatic external defibrillator, a device that can shock the heart back into normal rhythm.
Read more at the source: http://health.msn.com/health-topics/first-aid/articlepage.aspx?cp-documentid=100266084
