dr-exmedic.com

Twice this year already, the American Heart Association has come out in favor of more bystanders doing CPR:  that’s 13 pages of recommendations and justifications.

The first paper was largely glossed over by mainstream media, since it just called for more of the same:  more CPR classes, more research on skill retention, more dispatcher-assisted CPR programs.

The second paper made a few more waves, since it was a call for compression-only CPR for bystanders.  Since it made the news, I won’t belabor its conclusion, but I did find entertaining one of its reasonings for allowing bystanders to get away without giving rescue breaths (emphasis mine):

Eliminating the expectation of mouth-to-mouth contact during CPR is likely to improve esthetics and address the expressed concern of potential bystanders about infection.

You won’t find that concern in many articles outside of the plastic surgery literature.

Filed under: EMS