Currently, about 9 in 10 people who have cardiac arrest outside the hospital die. Certain people, including people in low-income, Black, and Hispanic neighborhoods, are less likely to receive CPR from bystanders than people in high-income white neighborhoods.
Women may also be less likely to receive CPR if they experience cardiac arrest in a public place. If you see someone in cardiac arrest, call right away and then start CPR. Keep doing CPR until medical professionals arrive. About , cardiac arrests happen outside of hospitals each year—and about 7 in 10 of those happen at home. If you see cardiac arrest happen see sidebar , call right away and then do CPR until medical professionals arrive.
Keep reading to learn how to perform CPR. Follow these steps if you see someone in cardiac arrest:. If you want to gain confidence in performing CPR, consider taking a class or attending a training.
Find training external icon or a course external icon near you. Skip directly to site content Skip directly to page options Skip directly to A-Z link. Heart Disease. Section Navigation. Apply market research to generate audience insights. Measure content performance. Develop and improve products. List of Partners vendors. There's a common misunderstanding that the main point of cardiopulmonary resuscitation CPR chest compressions is to directly pump the heart to get it beating again.
However, the heart typically needs an electric shock in order to restart. It's also deep in the chest. Instead, the main goal of chest compressions is to help restore blood flow to the brain and other vital organs, including the lungs and the heart itself, until the heart can be shocked.
This article will explore how blood vessels transport blood throughout the body and how CPR chest compressions can be used save a life. If someone's heart suddenly stops, known as sudden cardiac arrest , they can die within minutes. Blood isn't getting to their brain and other vital organs.
When CPR is performed quickly, it can double or triple a person's chance of survival. It can also help prevent or reduce brain damage by keeping blood flowing to the brain in the minutes before emergency medical services EMS arrives.
If someone collapses and is unresponsive when you yell "Are you OK? Then, follow the steps of CPR:. Chest compressions are considered the most essential part of CPR since it can get blood to the brain to help prevent brain damage and death. An AED is a portable device that can be used by the public. You place its pads on the person's chest and the device analyzes the heart rhythm and delivers a shock to the heart if sensors indicate that it's needed.
If someone goes into cardiac arrest in a public space, ask if there is an AED nearby. CPR can double or triple a person's chance of survival, especially if it's started immediately after someone goes into cardiac arrest. CPR chest compressions can help restore blood flow to the brain, heart, and other vital organs. Part of the misunderstanding about the role of chest compressions comes from names to describe it, such as external cardiac massage and closed-chest cardiac massage.
Historically, these names signaled an alternative option to internal cardiac massage —basically the doctor cut open your chest, reached in, and squeezed—that was commonly used in the early 20th century. Chest compressions mimic the heart's pumping, but how exactly they keep the blood flowing still isn't fully understood and is likely based on multiple factors.
One of those factors is that chest compressions can help squeeze blood into vessels. To better understand how blood may flow during CPR, it helps to understand the general functioning of blood vessels. All types of blood vessels help guide blood flow through the chest cavity during CPR, but veins in particular play an important role in moving the whole thing along. The network of pipes that carry blood around your body are roughly categorized into one of three types:.
As you age, crusts called plaques form on the inside of arteries. This happens a little in everyone, but a lot of plaque buildup—especially in the arteries that carry blood to the heart muscle—can increase the risk of heart attacks and strokes.
A heart attack blocks blood flow to the heart and it is not the same thing as cardiac arrest. Although, a person having a heart attack can then go into sudden cardiac arrest. During a heart attack, a person is still breathing and talking. As a service to our readers, Harvard Health Publishing provides access to our library of archived content. Please note the date of last review or update on all articles. No content on this site, regardless of date, should ever be used as a substitute for direct medical advice from your doctor or other qualified clinician.
Be helpful if free CPR classes were offered in every community with over people. Some employers offer free annual training to their employees, but hospitals, EMT services etc. You tube videos are great, but actual experience repeated in where to place your hands, how hard to press, to what rhythm—with an instructor present to correct any misplacement, etc.
Certainly instructing people so they can have the confidence to help others is an excellent idea. Be on your way to a healthy heart.
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