Now let's cover something that I call the five fears.
First, let's go through the number one fear, and I believe that's lawsuits.
You, as the rescuer, whether you are a professional or a lay person, are fearful of getting sued
because someone thinks you did something wrong.
The Good Samaritan Law went into effect over two decades ago
and has done a great job of protecting people who get involved in emergency situations
and they are immuned from getting sued... not necessarily getting sued, but losing the lawsuit.
You can get sued for looking at somebody wrong, or maybe they think you called them a name.
So, getting sued is one thing, but losing the lawsuit is another.
And since 1985, we have almost zero accounts of anybody getting sued and losing
because they helped a person in need and tried not to make the condition worse.
The only guidelines you have to make sure of there is that you're not trying to hurt the person
and you don't do anything above and beyond your scope of training.
Lawsuits -- they're no longer a fear if you realize we have a Good Samaritan Law protecting us.
Number 2 -- people fear the unknown.
It's been a long time since I got my training. I'm not sure what to do next.
What if I forget how many compressions to give?
What if I forget how to put the air in correctly?
I'm just not confident, and now I'm panicked.
Either because I haven't used it in a long time, I haven't been in my class in a long time.
Or maybe it's a loved one, or someone you care about, and the emotions are going crazy inside of you.
We have seen, over the last 50 years of CPR, so many changes in how to deliver CPR,
that we've changed the number sequences from 1-5-20; to 2 breaths, 15 compressions, for 4 cycles;
to now, the current, 30 compressions for 2 breaths.
And it changes often. That's because there isn't any set golden numbers to effective CPR.
Whether you put in a couple of breaths and X amount of compressions, something is always
better than nothing. If a person doesn't know what to do, that leads us to our next fear.
The fear of hurting or maybe even killing the patient.
If I do it wrongly because I don't remember what to do, maybe I'll make it worse.
Maybe I'll actually kill the person by breaking a rib, puncturing the lung,
puncturing the heart, and so on and so forth.
Or, if the person doesn't survive, maybe it's because I didn't know what I was doing,
and I wasn't doing it enough. Let me also cure this fear.
You cannot kill someone who is already dead.
When they are not breathing and they don't have a pulse, they are already clinically dead.
It only goes one more step from there, and that is to biological death, which is permanent.
Putting air in and sloshing that oxygen around, which is virtually what CPR is,
buys time for emergency medical responders to get there with AEDs or
defibrillators and advanced cardiac life support, in hopes that your CPR has bought time --
time biologically. That we have a patient that could be revived, possibly, with the right treatments.
The next fear is disease. I'm afraid that I might catch a disease from this person
on the floor, or on the ground.
They might have HIV, or hepatitis B, or hepatitis C.
They might have tuberculosis, or meningitis, or herpes.
And if I give mouth-to-mouth resuscitation or if I get blood in my mouth,
I might catch that disease. And that is accurate. You could.
But, it's so easy to protect yourself from that, we're going to help you through it.
Number 1 is to have a CPR shield with you all the time.
And that doesn't make any sense if you're thinking of the CPR shields that are big and bulky.
But now there are rescue keys that fit right on your keychain.
And most of us, at least in this country, always have a key with us.
And, if you have your keys, you will your packet attached to the keys,
which have gloves and a one-way valve CPR shield.
And as long as you use that CPR shield, especially as a healthcare provider,
knowing how to give rescue breaths, which is very good for the survivability of
a person in cardiac arrest, you will have a barrier between you and the bug.
So, unless you have your personal protective equipment, you may want to do
hands-only CPR, which we're going to cover next, which is showing great benefit
for a cardiac arrest victim.
But, if you are trained in CPR, it's too easy to get the personal protective equipment
and give the optimal rescue for that patient.
Lastly, unsafe scene. I saved this for last because unsafe scene is the only valid reason not to rescue.
If this scene is unsafe because of electrical hazards,
because of chemicals in the area, because there is someone who is violent,
they have a gun, a knife...
Those are reasons not to get involved until the scene becomes safe.
So, if the scene is unsafe, activate emergency medical services or 911,
wait for the scene to become safe, and then help any way you can.
Even if all you can do is call 911, that's better than nothing.
It gets the emergency medical services on the way and you've performed your part
in the rescue scenarios.