How many breaths do we give to an adult in expired air resucition?

Answer 1

Every year, everyone gets together and rewrites the protocols for CPR and EAR. Each year it's slightly different. Sometimes old methods are brought back. Sometimes new methods are introduced one year, removed the next year, and restored the following year. As such, it's no surprise to see the American Red Cross and the Mayo Clinic in disagreement. The American Red Cross says, two long rescue breaths to start, each lasting about 2 seconds. Watch for the chest to rise. If it doesn't rise, fix the problem. There's no use in breathing air into the victim's stomach, and it can induce vomiting, which in turn can cause pnemonitis. Breath yourself between breaths 1 and 2. If the chest is rising well, breath long, slow breaths into the victim until the chest rises, for adults, one rescue breath per every 4 seconds, and faster for younger victims. Mayo says 1 rescue breath lasting one second, and then another if necessary. Then 2 breaths for every 30 compressions if you're doing CPR. This should be about 1 breath every 5 seconds if you're not doing CPR but are instead doing EAR. eHow.com agrees with this approach. There are even a few resources (which I've ommitted) that say start rescue breathing with 5 quick breaths, then 1 per every 5 seconds. I should also add that, unless you do this every day -- literally -- trying to count off seconds accurately in the classroom is EASY, but doing it in the field is nearly impossible. Here are my unofficialy guidelines for EAR: * Put on gear if you have it. No sense in accidentally killing the rescuer. This includes, gloves, eyeshield, and whatever tool you have for resuscitation. If you have none and are ready to go mouth-to-mouth, more power to you -- just make that a serious decision; not a spur of the moment guess. * Double check if the patient is already breathing. It's easy to miss this in the typical adrenilin storm that is a rescue. Rebreathing a breathing patient is -- if you're lucky -- a total waste of time. * Position the patient and do your two rescue breaths -- I like the idea of a 2 second long rescue breath because, with smaller, younger or breathing-disabled victims, you can damage them if you over-inflate, and that's harder to do if you go slow. * Check for pulse. Most people in the field -- even the pros -- will not always find a pulse in the 10 seconds alloted, even if there is one. Check for 10 seconds, then 2 rescue breaths again. * Start breathing the patient once every 4 seconds for an adult. If you go a little slower or a little faster, this won't kill anyone. Continuity is the keep -- keep it up. * Bear in mind this is exhausting -- save as much of your strength as you can. You don't know how long you'll be doing this. * About every minute or two stop super-briefly and see if they've started breathing on their own. If they have, stand down. I've not covered CPR (the CPM du jour is 30 compressions about 0.75 seconds apart. Again, if you're a hair off, fine -- you're still doing it. COmpressions are Really exhausting and at this rate you'll run out of steam soon. ) and I've skipped calling for help (after a minute or 5, if you're still alone, consider going for help. This is a tough call unless you have a cell phone that works, or a phone nearby -- but remember you''re soon going to get exhausted -- and also CPR rarely results in the patient standing up, brushing off and walking away -- they usually need help all the way to the hospital -- so getting help is a real problem).