Really? There are many situations where you'd be out of the hospital needing to perform CPR before an ambulance gets there, but wouldn't defibrillators and other more effective methods be used in hospital? (I honestly have no idea that's just what I would've thought)
There are some cases when defibrillators won't give a charge, and there are some times when you'll have a small one in the field, but it is more common in the field than in the hospital. However, you may also need to do compressions while the device charges/gives a reading/powers up. :)
I think you're trying to say that, for the average person on the street, you'd be more likely to perform CPR outside of a hospital. However, CPR is performed far more often in a hospital setting.
In fact, we had 7 patients code last friday, one of which coded 6 times before they finally kicked it.
I'm sure there are statistics out there somewhere that'd settle this whole thing, but as I think this is just a simple misunderstanding, it's not worth it for me to research.
Pressing air into their lungs isn't the idea, it's physically compressing the heart so that it continues to pump blood, which you're not doing if you don't feel some crunch. Just remember to pull back enough after each stroke to allow more blood into the heart.
The blood actually stays sufficiently oxygenated (for a body doing no work) for a short time, but as a bonus in a hospital setting, you intubate the patient to pump more oxygen into the lungs, as well. Same idea (edit: as) rescue breathing.
Actually you'll do CPR for so long (the count is 30 compressions), then you do mouth (or mask) to mouth. CPR is NOT for pressing air into the lungs, Mgoveia is right on that count, it's to attempt to restart the heart, and is only to be used if someone's heart has stopped, so on the scale, a broken bone is thought to be less of a problem. If there are two medical responders on the scene, one will do compressions and one will breathe, and then they'll switch (because yes, ribs are going to break and that's expected, and all those compressions make your arms ache).
What restarts the heart is the defibrillator, which you can only effectively use if the patient has a shockable rhythm. Recognizing rhythms is something I need my EMT course for, though, so maybe someone else here knows more about that.
Did anyone read in my comment American Heart Association?. It is on the Advanced Life Support Guide Lines. I recently took that course and it´s clearly say OVER a 100 chest compressions.
In fact, we had 7 patients code last friday, one of which coded 6 times before they finally kicked it.
I'm sure there are statistics out there somewhere that'd settle this whole thing, but as I think this is just a simple misunderstanding, it's not worth it for me to research.
But you don't /have/ to its just taught to those with cpr training since it's the easiest method.
Found 3 people who don't have their BLS card.
Wat
The blood actually stays sufficiently oxygenated (for a body doing no work) for a short time, but as a bonus in a hospital setting, you intubate the patient to pump more oxygen into the lungs, as well. Same idea (edit: as) rescue breathing.
But all I could think of was Moriarty...