CPR to be Revamped
This is an interesting article (from Firehouse.com) about future changes to cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR).
Cardiopulmonary resuscitation is crucial when people collapse with cardiac arrest, but it's hard to perform correctly. Now major efforts are under way to improve how doctors, paramedics and average bystanders do the job: New CPR guidelines are due this fall, and high-tech machines that promise to help are already showing up in ambulances and offices.Not yet proven is whether using technology -- like a chest-squeezing gadget or sensors that coax rescuers to pound harder -- to spice up the 40-year-old resuscitation technique really will save lives.
Emergency-care specialists agree that CPR today doesn't save as many lives as it could.
''We've got our work cut out for us to make sure CPR is done better,'' says Mary Fran Hazinski of the American Heart Association, which is finalizing new recommendations designed to do just that.
This will have to be a major campaign to retrain all of the folks out there that have had CPR training over the years.
Posted August 25, 2005 09:14 AM · Link
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