He added: “This is an annual event organised by the European Resuscitation Council and is created to raise cardiac arrest awareness by teaching members of the public how to restart a heart after a cardiac arrest”.
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CPR guidelines are updated every five years by the global Liaison Committee on Resuscitation, a group bringing together 250 experts worldwide. Survival is better, but still very low, among patients whose hearts suddenly stop while hospitalized. Standard CPR includes compressing the chest and giving mouth-to-mouth rescue breathing. Patients may be better served in hospitals with advanced services like cardiac interventionists, neurocritical care, a cardiac catheter lab or a dedicated ICU.
“This is a sign of the times and a recognition of the fact that opioid addiction and opioid overdose are sadly becoming increasingly prevalent as the cause of an arrest”, said AHA spokesperson Monica Kleinman, MD, of Children’s Hospital Boston, who was among the authors of the revised guidelines.
According to the American Heart Association, effective bystander CPR performed immediately after cardiac arrest, can double or triple a victim’s chance of survival.
The new guidelines focus more on mobile technology, advising people to use speakerphone so dispatchers can advise them.
The guidelines also support using mobile apps to quickly connect trained citizens to cardiac arrest victims in public places.
“The message to the public is that anyone can perform CPR”. However, chest compressions are most important even without breathing.
More than 326,000 people experience cardiac arrest outside of a hospital each year and about 90 percent of them die, often because bystanders don’t know how to start CPR or are afraid they’ll do something wrong.
Josh, a pupil at Manor Church of England Academy, Nether Poppleton, near York, said: “I’m really pleased that my school is taking part in Restart a Heart Day this year, especially after what happened to my mum”. The community resuscitation strategy is meant to increase the number of people, of all ages, trained in CPR skills. Rescuers should perform chest compressions at a rate of 100 to 120 per minute and to a depth of at least 2 inches, avoiding excessive depths greater than 2.4 inches.
“You can say, ‘Wow, I’m right down the street from this, I can help, ‘ and it just puts hands on the chest faster”, said Dan Ellenberger, EMS director at University Hospitals Cleveland.
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The update includes recommendations specifically for health care systems.
