Employees at Massey, Stotser and Nichols law firm in Trussville recently gained some valuable knowledge that might someday save lives by giving up a portion of their afternoon Wednesday, July 16.Brad Garrard, a paramedic and instructor with the Trussville Fire Department, brought all the equipment to the law offices to teach about a dozen employees how to perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation, or CPR, how to help someone who is choking and how to operate an automated external defibrillator, or AED over the course of about two and a half hours.
Garrard used an instructional video, CPR dummies and demonstration AEDs to give his students a hands-on lesson on how to sustain life until medical professionals arrive on the scene of an emergency.
“Chest compressions are the most important part of CPR,” Garrard said. “It has recently been approved to only do chest compressions for CPR, but for your family members you will probably still want to give breaths. CPR keeps the brain oxygenated with fresh blood and fills the heart. It essentially assists the heart in pumping blood.”
Garrard and three junior firefighters were on hand to teach their students how to do proper chest compressions and give proper mouth-to-mouth breath support.
He said the newest ratio is two breaths for every 30 chest compressions, and if someone ever becomes frazzled while giving CPR, always go back to doing chest compressions.
Garrard said CPR is basically the same for adults and children.
It is important to check that the scene is safe and make sure the person is not responding to any stimuli before beginning CPR.
After observing for several seconds to determine whether the person is breathing normally, the person certified to perform CPR must tilt the head back to open up the trachea and allow air into the lungs once CPR begins.
Garrard had several warnings to prepare his students for what it will actually take to keep someone alive in such a situation.
“If you do not tilt their head back, the air will push into the esophagus when you give them mouth-to-mouth,” Garrard said. “Then all the contents of their stomach will be in the back of their throat when you give them chest compressions. Also, you may feel their ribs break or hear fluid under high pressure in the chest pop when you do the first couple compressions. Be prepared for that and don’t let up. Don’t let that stop you. They are already dead, that is why you are doing this.”
He also stressed that CPR does not bring a person back to life; it merely expands the window of four to six minutes after death before massive brain damage begins.
He said it typically takes 10 to 12 minutes for a fire department to respond to a call, so it is vital to have someone call 911 and begin CPR as soon as possible after someone stops breathing.
If an AED is available, it can also help by being a coach for the person performing CPR.
Once the pads of the AED are attached to the person and plugged into the machine, the AED can tell the person helping whether to give the patient a jolt of electricity or just continue doing CPR until help arrives.
“Don’t stop until you are too tired or an EMF arrives,” Garrard said. “Follow whatever your AED tells you to do. If it tells you to shock the patient, the heart is in chaotic activity and it will try to reset that activity to a normal pace.”
For infants, or any child under a year old, only two fingers should be used for chest compressions and controlled breaths are vital to keeping the child’s lungs from suffering damage as the rescuer attempts to keep them alive.
Garrard also advised AEDs should never be used on infants, although child-sized pads are available with certain models of the AED to modify the shock given.
For choking, it is important to make sure the person cannot make sounds such as coughing before trying to assist them in dislodging whatever they are choking on.
After telling the person they are going to help, the rescuer must stand behind the person and wrap their arms around them to give a forceful upward and inward thrust to try to clear the throat.
This is the same for children ages 1 to 8.
If an infant is choking, the person trying to dislodge the object must place the baby on their arm with the baby’s head below its heart and begin forcefully patting the baby’s back high between its shoulder blades.
If this does not work, the baby can be flipped over and two fingers can be used to try to thrust the object out with an upward and inward motion.
Garrard said all the equipment used for the class was funded through grants and corporate donations.
He encourages any businesses in Trussville interested in learning CPR to take part in the class.
For more information, e-mail rescue75@bellsouth.net or go to www.trussvillefire.com.
