12/26/2018
It’s easier than you think to help someone who is experiencing sudden cardiac arrest. Hands-Only CPR is CPR without mouth-to-mouth breaths. It’s simple to learn and easy to remember.
Comprising only one step to save a life, Hand-Only CPR emphasizes the importance of compressions in saving lives in any setting. The American Heart Association reports 350,000 Sudden Cardiac Arrests occur each year, most outside of a healthcare facility. Some 90-95% will not survive. For every minute that CPR and an AED are not used, the chances of survival are reduced by almost 10%.
With Hand-Only CPR, the rescuer starts compressions over the victim’s heart near the nipple line, and compresses the chest at a regular rhythm, about 100-120 beats per minute. Providing CPR in the initial minutes following sudden cardiac arrest can help circulate blood that contains oxygen to their brain and other vital organs, and is a recognized factor for intact neurological recovery.
Hands-Only CPR performed by a bystander has been shown to be as effective as traditional CPR-with-breaths in those critical first few minutes of an out-of-hospital sudden cardiac arrest.
Watch this video American Heart Association instructional video to learn how to perform Hands-Only CPR:
Here are some additional resources to learn more about Sudden Cardiac Arrest and Hands-Only CPR: