CPR and Coronavirus

Now the rules for CPR, in a world where there's Coronavirus and COVID-19 have changed slightly because if we did normal CPR, we'd be opening the airway, we'd be checking for breathing and we'd be doing breaths as well. And this is a massive infection risk because you are then putting your mouth directly close to someone else's, so the chance of you catching a virus is near enough guaranteed, it's the perfect world for it. So UK Resus Council have changed the guidance. Now, around about 30,000 sudden cardiac arrests happen every single year in the UK alone and around about 80% of these happen in the home or around family members.

So, this is not going to go away, people are still going to have a cardiac arrest, if this is the example, just because we have got Coronavirus won't make any difference. So, what I'm going to do now is have a look at the rules and see the slight changes. Now, the first thing we are going to do is once we notice the person is gone into cardiac arrest, and you will see what probably this has been witnessed, or you will see them lying there and they are obviously not breathing, is we take the phone, we dial 999 or 112 and we ask for an ambulance and then we put our phone on speakerphone and you can lay that down by their head.

Now, the emergency services will be able to talk you through exactly what to do. So if you are worried about what to do, they are there to help you. The next thing is, is because we are pushing down on the chest and because we are close to the person we need to put some kind of barrier between them and us. So, what we are doing in this example is using a piece of cloth, so this is a tea cloth, but you could use anything, you know, if you have got a jumper or something like that, put it over the person's mouth and nose. But the important thing is we are not obstructing the airway because as you push down and up and down on the chest, there will be air going in and out of the lungs, which is good because you are circulating some oxygen-rich blood around the body. The idea of this is just to pop it off over to their face so that it's just taking any airborne particles of fluids are going to hopefully stay on their side of the face and not on your side. So as we are doing compressions it keeps that moisture there, but don't put stuff in their mouth don't completely block the airway because we do want to have some movement of air in and out of the mouth. So once that area is safe, then your risks are reduced. Now ideally, if you have got gloves and things like that to wear, great, but in most cases in the home, you are not going to have access to those.

So the emergency services are called, the face is covered, you know this person is in cardiac arrest. We are not opening the airway, we are not checking for breathing because that's far too higher risk and we are going to go straight in with compressions, same as we would normally, interlock the fingers, arms nice and straight, the center of the chest shoulders over the... A person. And then we are pushing down 100 to 120 beats per minute, which is roughly two a second. So it's, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10. Now, we keep going with that until the emergency services arrive. Now, ideally, they will be there within eight minutes, but it might be 10, even at eight minutes, even at six minutes this is really hard.

So if there's someone else there to help, you can hand over to them so they can go around the other side, maybe after two minutes of you doing it, then they have a go with two minutes and two minutes and two minutes until help arrives. Then also it's important that the compression is important, but just as important is the release when you push down, you squeeze the blood out of the heart when you release, you let the blood suck back in. So, compress down and back up, down and back up and doing that around about five to six centimetres, which is quite a long way but it's effective, so push down and release. Once you have done this just keep going, now at the end of the CPR side, the emergency services have got there, then you do need to make sure you thoroughly wash yourself. Maybe if you could have fluids on you, you can change your clothes and do what you can to get yourself as clean as possible after the CPR has been finished.

And finally, it's important that this person has an AED put onto them, now you are not going to have necessarily one of those in the home but there might be one out and about or you might have a community AED unit. So, if possible, if there's someone spare that you can go and send for an AED, send them for the AED when the AED arrives then you need to follow the voice prompts. Now, if the emergency services are on the phone, they can help you as well but they are very, very straight forward and they are very easy to use and the AED could be the thing that brings them back even before the emergency services have arrived.