Now, we are going to cover Adult CPR for the single rescuer for health care professionals.
We have ensured that the scene is safe and our gloves are on and our rescue mask is available
with a one way valve and we are going to call out to the victim to see if they are responsive.
"Sir, can you hear me? Are you okay?" They don't respond. So I place a hand on the fore
head and I tap on the collarbone. "Sir, sir, can you hear me?" They didn't respond to my
taps and shots. So I am going to activate EMS, call 911 or call a code. If I have a
by-stander, I can tell them, "hey you applied shirt, go call 911 and come back. and if you
could find an AED, bring it with you, I might need your help." If I have a cell phone I
can whip that out too and actually call 911 and put it on speakerphone and allow some
help that way as well or just access it through that technology. Now that I have gone ahead
and done that, I can continue my assessment. I am going to look for signs of normal breathing
as I check for the carotid pulse. how we find the carotid pulse. it's located between the
trachea and the sternocleidomastoid muscle in the valley between those two structures.
We are going to use the flat point of our two fingers and then press moderately on the
valley. I check no more than 10 seconds and I note that the patient is not breathing normally
and they do not have a pulse. Now, you might say also, what do you mean breathing normally,
I mean what does that mean? Breathing normally is someone who is breathing and oxygenating.
Agonal respirations which is basically like a fish out of water who is gulping or gasping
for breath, does not equal regular breathing or normal breathing. So, to me, agonal respirations
are no respirations and there is no pulse and they are unresponsive. So, we are going
to go right into CPR. Now let's talk about the technique of CPR. Right between the breast
and the sternum, lower third of the sternum. we want to do a 2 to 2.4 inch deep compression
and we want to compress at a rate between 100 and 120 compressions per minute. That's
about 2 per second. and the other thing to note as you see me sitting on this bench,
I would not stay here to do the compressions. it's a) it's going to be difficult and exhausting
for me and b) I am going to end up rolling over their chest, which does not adequately
compress this hollow organ we call the heart. we want to compress that heart, which is sandwiched
between the sternum and the spine so that we can maximize that cardiac output. The second
feature of that is that once we do that 2 to 2.5 deep compression, we want to allow
for what we call the full recoil. That full recoil means we come right back up to the
neutral position before we do our next compression. and then lastly as we stand over the patient,
I want to come directly over the top of them with my elbows locked and using my upper body
weight to do my full 2 to 2.4 deep compression, a 100 to 120 times per minute. so here we
go. one and two and three and four and five... ...thirty. I grab my rescue mask, seal it
over the patient's face and nose, give it a full suction lip and try two breaths. first
breath goes in, chest rise and fall. Second breath goes in, chest rise and fall. Right
back in to the same location and thirty more chest compressions. I am going to continue
the thirty chest compressions to two rescue breaths until help arrives, AED arrives or
until my patient begins responding and breathing normally.