how to administer CPR

Read or view the basics on how to administer CPR so you can do it without training; take a class to learn and practice the correct techniques.

Practice makes perfect, but you can administer CPR without training if you know the basics.

RODALE NEWS, EMMAUS, PA—If you’re like a lot of people, you probably picture cardiopulmonary resuscitation, or CPR, as a combination of chest compressions and mouth-to-mouth breathing. If the recipient is an adult, that is no longer the case; chest compressions only has become the standard procedure. But for children who go into cardiac arrest, compressions plus mouth-to-mouth may be the preferred method, confirms a recent Japanese study. Whether you’re dealing with an adult or a child, the main thing is to learn how to administer CPR—and take immediate action in the crisis without fear that you may exacerbate the problem.

THE DETAILS: Published earlier this month in the medical journal The Lancet, the Japanese study identified 5,170 children aged 17 and under who suffered an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest from 2005 to 2007. Study coauthor Taku Iwami, MD, and his colleagues analyzed the children’s age, cause of cardiac arrest, and method used by the person administering CPR. In the vast majority of cases, this person was not a medical professional, but rather a bystander.

Study results showed that for children who had gone into cardiac arrest for noncardiac reasons (i.e., medicine overdose, respiratory arrest, drowning), compression-plus-rescue-breathing worked best. For children who suffered cardiac arrests from cardiac causes (i.e., heart attack, coronary artery abnormality), the two methods worked equally well.

WHAT IT MEANS: Of course, it's unlikely that a layman could ID the cause in someone who's collapsed and needs CPR, but that's not the point. The biggest takeaway from the study, and from CPR research in general, is that any effort at CPR can only help the victim. You cannot hurt someone who's in trouble by attempting CPR, assures Thomas D. Rea, MD, CPR expert and associate professor of medicine at the University of Washington in Seattle.

Read on to see the basic CPR technique that you can administer even if you get no further instruction.