Effective Cardio Pulmonary Resuscitation

It's extremely important to note that breathing into a casualty who is unconscious and not breathing normally is an authentic first aid technique in the UK. The version of CPR shown in the TV ads sponsored by the British Heart Foundation, are aimed at citizens who are not trained. However, in some situations, it could be that you are unable to give breaths to a person because of major injuries to the area around the mouth or because don't want to (for example because you don't have access to a face shield and you are reluctant to risk contamination from blood-borne diseases such as AIDS, HIV, hepatitis B etc.. In these cases, doing compressions only is seen as a reasonable alternative.

To give effective breaths into someone, move the head back by pinching the soft part of the nose and positioning two fingers under their chin. This action removes the tongue from the airway therefore preventing the mouth from opening too far.

Make a seal around the casualty's mouth with your mouth (you need to open your mouth quite wide in order to seal the mouth effectively). Give the casualty two breaths, leaving about a second between breaths. Doing it this way will allow the lungs to inflate and deflate effectively.

Carry on with thirty compressions and 2 breaths until one of the following happens

• recovery happens
• the ambulance arrives and the paramedics tell you to stop
• you get too tired and you are on your own
• someone else can take over from you
• someone arrives with an Artificial External Defibrillation machine

*The person who takes over does not need to be a first aider, they simply need to be told how to do CPR. It's recommended that, if another person can take over, you change over every two minutes (about 4 cycles of 30 compressions and 2 breaths).

Babies and children. With Babies and children, CPR starts with 5 rescue breaths and continues with thirty compressions and 2 breaths. The first set of rescue breaths are only done once, at the beginning.

CPR for infants - from birth to 1 year: 5 rescue breaths: make a complete seal around their mouth and nose with your mouth and breathe 5 times gently into the infant (it's crucial not to over breathe due to potential lung damage).

Using your middle and index fingers, employ chest compressions thirty times roughly about a third of the infant's upper body depth

Breathe twice into the infant and Keep doing thirty chest compressions and 2 breaths until...

• the infant shows signs of recovery
• the ambulance arrives and the paramedics tell you to stop
• you get too tired and you are on your own (probably not likely as this is not as strenuous as with an adult)
• someone else can take over from you

CPR for children - age 1 year to 8 years: The techniques are similar to adult CPR but begins with 5 rescue breaths and continues with thirty chest compressions and 2 breaths. Dependant upon the relative size between you and the child, you may want to use one hand to carry out the compressions instead of two.