How do cpr works

Breathe into their mouth twice. For an infant, place your mouth over their nose and mouth and blow for 1 second to make their chest rise. Then, deliver two rescue breaths.

For a child, use one of your hands. Place the heel of the hand at their sternum, which is in the center of the chest, between and slightly below their nipples. Press down hard and fast around 2 inches deep, or one-third the depth of the chest, at least times per minute. For an infant, use two fingers.

Place your fingers in the center of their chest, between and slightly below the nipples. Perform 30 quick compressions around 1. Repeat the cycle of rescue breaths and chest compressions until the child starts breathing or help arrives. Use CPR when an adult is not breathing at all. For a child or infant, use CPR when they are not breathing normally. Always use CPR if the adult or child is not responding when you talk to them or tap them.

If someone is not breathing, giving CPR can ensure that oxygen-rich blood reaches the brain. This is important, as without oxygen, someone can sustain permanent brain damage or die in under 8 minutes. Only perform CPR if the adult is not breathing, or in children and infants, when they are not breathing normally, and their blood is not circulating. This is why it is important to ensure that the person does not respond to verbal or physical calls to attention before starting the CPR process.

CPR is a life-saving first aid procedure. The steps vary depending on whether the person is an infant, child, or adult. However, the basic cycle of chest compressions and rescue breaths will remain the same. Only use CPR when an adult has stopped breathing.

Check the person to see whether they respond to verbal or physical stimuli before starting CPR. A soft tissue injury may require first aid. During a heart attack, the heart generally does not stop beating completely and it has been shown that symptoms of a heart attack can vary between males and females.

Neither of these is the case with actual cardiac arrest. This difference is a critical one, because once the heart stops beating entirely the victim is only minutes away from irreversible brain injury and death.

With a heart attack, there may be time to get a victim to a hospital, or call Cardiac arrest is an immediate threat and must be handled immediately. A broken rib is relatively easy to fix, a brain that has suffered several minutes of oxygen deprivation is not. It is important to understand the limitations of CPR as a life saving technique. Despite what popular entertainment would have you believe, even when properly performed within seconds of a cardiac arrest in a hospital with all necessary equipment and capabilities, only about fifty percent of all arrest victims survive the initial event.

Fewer still will survive long enough to leave the hospital and a good percentage of those will suffer some degree of neurological impairment. Why such a low survival rate? It is impossible to know why the person has entered as a state of arrest, and that is a crucial component of proper treatment.

Even discounting that, it is unrealistic to expect a given individual to be able to diagnose and properly treat another given individual who just happens to arrest within their vicinity. We can all rest easy. But is it like that in the real world? To restart the heart would usually require an electric shock. It buys you time, but it needs to be done hard and fast, which soon tires you out, so you need to get yourself into a position where you can continue for a long time, or ideally take turns with someone else.

If someone without a pulse appears to recover and regain a pulse through CPR then the chances are that their heart was still beating faintly all along. The success of CPR depends a lot on where you live and how fast you can get medical help.

A review of studies across many countries found a survival rate of just 5. Severe allergic reactions anaphylaxis and asthma attacks need urgent emergency first aid.

In an emergency, always call triple zero Anaphylaxis is a severe allergic reaction that requires urgent medical attention. Content on this website is provided for information purposes only. Information about a therapy, service, product or treatment does not in any way endorse or support such therapy, service, product or treatment and is not intended to replace advice from your doctor or other registered health professional.

The information and materials contained on this website are not intended to constitute a comprehensive guide concerning all aspects of the therapy, product or treatment described on the website. All users are urged to always seek advice from a registered health care professional for diagnosis and answers to their medical questions and to ascertain whether the particular therapy, service, product or treatment described on the website is suitable in their circumstances.

The State of Victoria and the Department of Health shall not bear any liability for reliance by any user on the materials contained on this website. Skip to main content. First Aid. Home First Aid. Cardiopulmonary resuscitation CPR. Actions for this page Listen Print. Summary Read the full fact sheet. On this page. What is cardiopulmonary resuscitation CPR? This combination of techniques is used: chest compressions rescue breathing mouth-to-mouth.

When to seek help in an emergency In an emergency situation someone's health can deteriorate quickly.