we are taking it to heart this morning
this week is national CPR week and the
goal is to highlight the importance of
this life-saving skill and to encourage
everyone to take 90 seconds just 90
seconds to learn hands-only CPR this 90
second video could really mean the
difference between life and death
joining me now to discuss these
life-saving skills Tanya Bush who's an
RN a nurse at Mayo Clinic and Greta Hall
who was an AED aah a program coordinator
with the st. Johns County Fire Rescue
good morning ladies thank you for you
appreciate Tanya let me start with you
first of all how does someone recognize
the signs that someone is in cardiac
arrest I mean what if you walk up and
you just see somebody let's say on the
ground how do you know that that's what
the problem is well it's usually just a
normal healthy looking individual they
don't look differently but a cardiac
arrest is from an abnormal electrical
conduction in the heart that causes the
heart to stop pumping normally which
then doesn't get blood flow to the brain
and the other organs so the heart will
eventually stop and the patient will
stop breathing so so perhaps seeing if
this person collapses if this person
maybe kind of grabs his or her chest
once they're on the ground though or
maybe you've just walked into the room
are there certain steps that you should
go through to see what their issue is I
mean obviously are you checking for a
pulse is that the first thing well
generally people in the community won't
know to check for a pulse but if they
lay their hand on the person's chest and
don't feel any chest rise or movement
then it's best to go ahead and start CPR
and and where are most people the the
most likely then typically based on
statistics too to go into cardiac arrest
so most people that arrest outside the
hospital about 70 percent actually
arrest in the home so generally if you
need to perform CPR in the community
it's on somebody you love which is which
which adds in all of those emotions and
a little bit of panic probably as well
Greta let me bring you into the
conversation if we could at first I want
to start with your experience in what
you've seen also is there a tendency
that people may be panic and don't know
what to do a lot of times people do
panic they believe that they're gonna do
something wrong and that's the biggest
misconception about doing any type of
CPR do something rather than do nothing
at all
compression only CPR when they brought
it on board it's just another tool in
the toolbox it's a great thing to have
that really can increase somebody's
chances of survival and it's just chest
compressions because there may be some
people if you they don't know the person
who would be hesitant to do exactly on
the part exactly they would they would
just call 9-1-1 and just stand there
when somebody who's suffering sudden
cardiac arrest has the oxygen in their
blood supply that they can circulate if
we can get that blood circulating and
preventing those brain cells from dying
then we're giving this person a shot
we're giving this person the chance or
survival and that's what the whole goal
is would you show us then absolutely so
I always say your scene is safe because
we want to make sure that nobody's
walking into any of our dangerous we
want to make sure help is on the way if
we initiate this we don't call for help
then we've obviously we're gonna be here
for a really long time so you want to
make sure help is on the way I must
point to someone who didn't you when I
screened them call 9-1-1 exactly or if
you need to call yourself put it on a
speakerphone drop your phone your night
when when dispatchers are all trained to
help walk you through CPR so if you
forget they'll walk you through it
they're great at what they do
then you're gonna Hanson to be in the
center of the chest the heel of your
hand you're gonna lean over you're going
to lock your hands you're going to
tighten your elbows and you're going to
go two inches into somebody's chest up
two and you're gonna be going to the
rate of a hundred 120 beats per minute
at a depth of 2 inches and you're gonna
continuously do this until help arrives
now a lot of times people go well how do
I know that I'm doing that fast enough
there are songs that are out there like
stayin alive is a popular one I'm gonna
drive some parents crazy baby shark is
the newest one it has the right beat
count so if you want to remember baby
shark it's a great song to kind of keep
you right in the rhythm but that just
sustaining that until EMS responders get
on scene
adding an AED if one is available this
really does make the difference in
somebody's life and truly - I mean it's
a matter of minutes can really change
the outcome can it not whether or not it
was started out kind of in the public
when it first happened between the
difference of getting literally on the
rescue unit and then to the hospital
exactly the faster
somebody can respond and recognize
there's a problem the better off it is
for the patient where can people go
Tonya then or or Greta to watch this
video they can go to heart.org those
videos are all available through the
American Heart Association on their
website and you can watch those videos
in the 90 seconds you don't need a fancy
mannequin to do it like I tell a lot of
my students pull a pillow off the couch
and practice that way share the
information with your family and make
sure that if someone has collapsed on a
bed you get them on us on a hard surface
right pull it down on the ground or
whatever you can because you don't want
to want to make sure that it's it's
making a difference ladies thank you so
much for being here such critical
important information I hope we were
able to teach you at home how to save a
life with just simple literally what you
saw here as well as that 90 minute video
which we will create a link on our
website later this morning news for Jax
calm