Michigan Technology University

Performing compressions on someone lying in a soft and pliable mattress will only result in the force going into the mattress and not the body. The standard answer is to get the patient on a crash board first but that requires extra time to roll the patient and position the board. Extra time that is often critical.

But a group of innovative students at Michigan Tech may just have the answer. They have been developing a mattress that will allow faster and more effective cardiopulmonary resusciation (CPR).

The idea: Suck the air out of the foam in the mattress and make it firm

The means: some tubing, a little motor, and a vacuum pump.

The results: the CPR load (or force) that is applied to the heart increases to 81 percent with the Tech students mattress (as compared to 43 percent for standard mattress and 52 percent for standard mattress and crash board)

It’s a design that could save lives in a heartbeat.

(image source)

Post from: Healthbolt

Were your CPR instructors strict about the number of compressions and breathes to do? Did they stress the need for ‘x’ number of compressions followed by ‘x’ number of breathes? Did you have trouble finding the carotid pulse? Difficulty getting the breathes in?

Well, you can relax. Things have really changed since the early days of CPR training.

Why?

Well, it turns out that the frequent stopping to breath air into the victim isn’t actually best action. Research has shown that even a second of pausing in compressions can cause a 1% reduction in the likelihood of getting the heartbeat to return.

So if you haven’t updated your CPR knowledge lately, it might be time to do so.

Start by checking out the new first aid guidelines that the American Heart Association put out last year. Based on the research over the past few years, they are now suggesting that the ‘mouth to mouth’ part of CPR is unnecessary.

In fact, they have moved to a ‘hands-only’ CPR technique for bystanders which focuses on two steps involving calling 911 (in US) and then pushing hard and fast in the center of the chest.

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But instead of just reading the guidelines put out by the American Heart Foundation, now would be a good time to update your knowledge with a CPR/First Aid course.

You can find a CPR class near you using the American Heart Foundation’s ECC Class Connector which lists all the CPR, First Aid, AED and Emergency Cardiovascular Care (ECC) classes in the United States.

Post from: Healthbolt