Good Lifestyle

A Seattle 911 dispatcher receives a call from a woman whose husband has just collapsed and has no pulse. Believing correctly that the man went into the cardiac arrest, the operator causes the woman to perform the RCP, a rotating series of rapid breast compressions followed by two fast breaths in his mouth to provide oxygen. "Why every time I press his chest, he opens his eyes and every time I stop and breathe for him, he went back?" The woman asks.

"When I heard the band of this conversation, I was surprised," saysGordon Ewy, M.D., Professor Emeritus of Cardiology and Director Emeritus of the Sarver Heart Center at Arizona University. "This woman had learned in 10 minutes what it took us 10 years of research to find out."

That is, giving mouth to mouth to a person in a cardiac arrest, it's not only bad - it could also be mortal.

Every year, about half a million Americans go to a sudden arrest of the heart. This is the leading cause of death in America and 95% of its victims die in minutes. Yesterday morning, the rock iconTom Pety was found little conscious in his Malibu house, suffering from cardiac arrest. Later in the day, the 66 years old were dead at the UCLA Medical Center.

The cardiac arrest occurs when the heart ceases pumping blood because its rhythm becomes messy and not synchronized (called ventricular fibrillation). This happens most often as the result of underlying heart disease. The experts have taught for more than 40 years to give someone to a cardiac arrest in the mouth between the thoracic cuts, but in a study published inThe lancet, Scientists have found that the survival rates of cardiac victims were higher when the cuts were not accompanied by mouth-to-mouth (studies echoing more than a decade). This is because the blood of a person remains completely oxygenated when the heart stops. The only temporal in the mouth is necessary, some cardiac specialists believe now, it is in the case of a drowning or overdose of drugs. In these cases, the heart always pumps blood, so that the oxygen levels of the body are quickly exhausted.

"If you see that someone suddenly falls on the ground with abnormal breathing and no impetus, it is a cardiac arrest," says Dr. Ewy, recognized by the American Heart Association for his contributions to the science of the CPR. "What you need to do is immediately call 911. If there is a defibrillator around, send someone to get it while you start continuous thoracic cuts (CCC) at a rate of 100 per minute."

A defibrillator is the only thing that can depolarize muscle fibers that are spasming out of sequence (that is, start the heart). The thoracic compressions simply buy the time of the person by moving the blood in his heart and his brain, keeping the blood pressure to fall to zero and the person to slip into a coma during the race of medical services on the stage. It takes only six minutes for someone to go from ventricular fibrillation to the flat line if nothing is done, but-how we now know, there is a double survival increase when thoracic cuts are applied. If you are in a situation where someone has a cardiac episode, follow these four steps immediately. And for more good health advice, be sure to read howSlash your heart artery risk risk with this expert test.

After calling 911, launch the victim on the back, put the heel with one of your hands in the center of his chest (right between the nipples) and the heel of your other hand on the first hand.

Lock your elbows, put your shoulders directly at the center of their chest and fall, make quick and powerful cuts at a rate of 100 per minute. The weight of your body will help you compress the chest of an inch and a half, and when showing, the thoracic wall spring and help pushing blood around the body. Lift your hands slightly so that the chest get closer.

Continue at a rate of 100 per minute. If there is someone around help you, ask that person on the other side of the victim and take over after 100 compressions. Switch each minute until the help arrives.

If there is an available defibrillator, join the victim and follow the instructions.

A version of this story initially ran in the September 2007 issue of Better life.

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