h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: CPR - A892460
Author: ZY - U210015

article on cpr... its not finished just looking for comments and how i can improve on it

Hi ZY,

This is a good start! I have a few suggestions....

As an ex-first aid trainer (at low level!) I don't think it's possible to teach CPR through a guide entry - there's just no substitute for doing it on one of those dummy things. That's not to say that there shouldn't be an entry on it. I'd suggest asking an italic to have a look at this to see if they would be prepared to accept an entry on first aid into the edited guide, because they've been a bit wary about entries which give advice. Also, advice and guidelines vary over time and between countries. The number for calling an ambulance, for instance, is 999 in the UK and (I think) 112 in Europe. An article on the Dr ABC(danger, response, airway, breathing, circulation) rule might be more likelu to get in.

I think that the key thing about CPR is that it won't start the heart beating again. At best it's only a temporary measure that might keep them going until an ambulance arrives. There's no resusitation without defibrilation, as my old first aid trainer used to say. Also, if you have to do CPR you should expect that the casualty will die, as the chances are that they will. Too many first aid courses used to give the impression that the heart would start again, and that the chances of saving life were good.

Another top tip is not to breathe a full lungfull into the casualty during resusitation unless you want the contents of their stomach to make an appearance....

Otto

yeah. i have taken those to note... i think i better move the warning up a bit. i will also ad dthe chain of survival for cpr/defibrillation...

I think you should mention never to perform artificial resperation ona young child unless you know exactly what you are doing.

there have been quite a few cases of causing permenant damage to young lungs by trying to overinflate them.

also mention how incredibly tiring it is. hardly anyone can do it for more than about 15 minutes.