• NaibofTabr
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    4 months ago

    Yeah, basically you’re trying to force some circulation through the brain by manually pumping the heart - which is as much about clearing the waste buildup out of the brain as it is getting fresh oxygen to the brain, and also about preventing clots (which will later cause aneurysms when the blood starts flowing normally). Everything else is essentially expendable/repairable/replaceable.

    Even the breathing part isn’t very important, though the initial check to make sure the airway is clear is very important. If you’re doing the chest compressions right, you’ll force some airflow through the lungs anyway. The important part is getting the blood to circulate. Having stagnant blood sitting in the brain is really bad.

    The current CPR procedure recommends 100-120 chest compressions of at least 2" (5cm) per minute. You are going to hurt them. You may crack their ribs. You need to compress the heart through their ribs and muscle and other tissue that’s in the way. Even if you’re in good physical shape, it is an exhausting thing to do. It’s definitely something worth learning to do correctly - take a class if you can! You can absolutely save someone’s life if their heart stops.

    • Որբունի@jlai.lu
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      4 months ago

      The class with a mannequin is really important to experience firsthand. Like to see that you should really start calling the emergency services and put them on speaker after you’ve assessed the situation and before you start CPR. And to know how hard you have to do it. It doesn’t take incredible skill, the modern mannequins will rate your performance, as long as you go fast enough and don’t stop it’s good. I was in shape at the time and I found it easy enough if you use your weight to help, I don’t think I could keep going hard for more than five minutes though.

      • baldingpudenda@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        That’s why they recommended doing it in a group. You start getting tired, slowing down, not pushing down 5cm, etc so you hand off to someone else. It’s a workout.

      • bluewing@lemm.ee
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        4 months ago

        Now try doing CPR in the back of an amber-lamps bouncing down a gravel road at insane speeds while standing up and you have 50 miles, (80 Kms for those in Rio Linda) to the nearest hospital. Been there, done that, got way more tee-shirts than I ever wanted. Thank god for automatic CPR machines so I didn’t need to manually do CPR for 40 minutes straight anymore.

    • FinishingDutch@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      I did CPR training a while back, including AED use. It was fun - and sobering. The takeaway was basically: the odds of your victim surviving this is low, but any chance is better than no chance. They also drilled into us that good CPR will likely crack some ribs. Which is again preferable to, you know, being dead.

      They also had us training on two mannequins. First one was the ‘nice’ dummy that’s easy to compress and teaches good form. Then they switched it out for a ‘lifelike’ dummy, which supposedly simulates the actual strength needed for good CPR. And man, that’s a workout for sure. After performing five minutes of solo CPR on that bad boy, I was about ready to need that AED myself. I’m quite a chunky individual, and even leveraging my body weight that took a bit of strength. We had a petite girl in our class who couldn’t manage it.

    • MindTraveller@lemmy.ca
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      4 months ago

      Properly performed CPR doesn’t crack ribs. If you cracked a rib, you fucked it up and did it too hard. That’s better than letting them die, but don’t go cracking ribs on purpose.

      • NaibofTabr
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        4 months ago

        You’re right, but it’s hard to be careful and fast. And for me personally, I’m a fairly big guy so it’s easy to hurt someone doing this.