health & wellness

Stayin' Alive With CPR

T

he American Heart Association
is calling on all Americans
to learn how to perform
Hands-Only CPR and how to use an
Automated External Defibrillator
(AED).
Sudden cardiac arrest is a leading
cause of death in the United States,
with nearly 400,000 out-of-hospital
cardiac arrests occurring annually.
The American Heart Association uses
a simple one-minute video to teach
the use of compression-only CPR, or
Hands-Only CPR, to the beat of the
classic disco song, "Stayin Alive" by
the Bee Gees. Hands-Only CPR can
more than double a victim's chance of
survival.
An AED is a portable, battery-
operated device that is able to check a
person's heart rhythm and, if needed,
the AED can deliver an electric shock
to the person's heart.
Sudden cardiac arrests occur when
electrical impulses in the heart become
rapid or chaotic, which causes the
heart to suddenly stop beating. These
differ slightly from a heart attack,
which occurs when the blood supply to

part of the heart muscle is blocked. A
heart attack may cause cardiac arrest.
So, why learn CPR? Sadly, 70 percent
of Americans may feel helpless to act
during a cardiac emergency because
they either do not know how to admin-
ister CPR or their training has signifi-
cantly lapsed.
This alarming statistic could hit
close to home, because home is exactly
where 80 percent of cardiac arrests
occur, according to the American Heart
Association. The life you save with CPR
is most likely to be someone you love.
If you see an unresponsive adult who
is not breathing or not breathing nor-
mally, call 911 and push hard and fast
on the center of the chest at a rate of at
least 100 beats per minute. Remember
the chorus to "Stayin Alive" to keep the
most correct pace.
Failure to act in a cardiac emergency
can lead to unnecessary deaths. Hands-
Only CPR has been proven to be as
effective as CPR with breaths in treat-
ing adult cardiac arrest victims.
To learn more about risk factors,
how to administer Hands-Only CPR
and more, visit: www.heart.org/cpr .

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or the ninth consecutive year,
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As the national health care reform law
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June 27 • 2013

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