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Basic Things You Need to Know About Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR)

Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) is a life-saving technique used in medical emergencies like cardiac arrest, near drowning, choking, poisoning, drug overdose, and electric shock. As the term suggests, CPR is the revival of the heart and lungs when they stop functioning temporarily for some reason, especially during cardiac arrest.

Though CPR is used in a variety of medical situations, it is the most widely used technique to create an artificial circulation of blood among patients of cardiac arrest till expert medical attention becomes available to them. You can check out this source if you are looking for CPR training services. 

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• Failure of Heart and Lungs: Cardiac arrest mainly occurs because of a condition called ventricular fibrillation. Ventricular fibrillation makes the rhythm of the heart go haywire and as a result, the heart fails to pump blood to the body. The heart stops functioning temporarily and the patient fails to breathe. When the heart fails to pump blood, the blood circulation ceases and the brain and other vital organs of the body get deprived of oxygenated blood. 

• Buy Time Till the Help Arrives: But what if the defibrillator is not available? What if a trained paramedic or physician is not available? If you are a witness to a patient in distress, and if you know that the help is around but may take more than ten minutes, you need to buy time and keep the patient alive by giving him/her artificial breathing and creating artificial blood circulation. Artificial breathing and blood circulation without any equipment are possible only by using the CPR technique. 

• Two Tasks That Are Part of CPR: There are two tasks that need to be done as part of CPR. The first one is creating an artificial circulation of blood by giving chest compressions. The other task is giving artificial respiration to the patient either by blowing air by the rescuer through his/her mouth or with the help of a mechanical device. Though artificial respiration is part of CPR, it requires a trained person to do it. 

• Effectiveness of the Process: CPR alone can't revive the heart. It can only keep the circulation of oxygenated blood to different parts of the body and prevent the death of tissues. The actual resuscitation may become possible only when the patient gets the required medical attention like a life support system and defibrillation.