And yet again, Jim Joyce takes someone who was out and makes them safe.

Good job, Jim!

Apparently, Jim Joyce:MLB Umpires::Steve Carlon:1972 Phillies

When he revived, the victim threw his hands up in celebration and was promptly thrown out by Joyce for showing him up.

I could almost forgive him for Ulysses now. He'll have to save a small town before I forgive Finnegans Wake

"I've had to use CPR before," Joyce said, though not in many years. "This is something everybody should know. Everybody should know what to do in a circumstance like that.

"It's not a hard thing. You don't need a degree. It's very simple, and very easy."

This.

It's probably the best and most important thing he could have said.

He's got nothing on Steve Palermo.

This.

It's probably the best and most important thing he could have said.

A, B, C.

1. Airway
2. Breathing
3. Compression (or is it Cardio? Anyway, it's get the heart beating)

It's been quite a few years since I took the class (did it with my daughter when she was in high school), and probably a refresher wouldn't be a bad idea.

Anyway, it really is simple, and expert technique isn't nearly as important as just doing something reasonably effective while following the ABC priority. Every adult should learn it.

I just want to say that I had never really given any thought to taking a CPR class, but thanks to this thread, I'm looking into it now, and I'm going to do it.

I took a CPR class a long time ago (high school) and my job requires us to take one every couple of years. The last one to be held I didn't go and HR and security was giving me grief over it. My response was that if somebody was depending on me to save their life then they are already dead.

On average, only 5–10% of people who receive CPR survive.

On average, only 5–10% of people who receive CPR survive.

When the set you're selecting from is "people who aren't breathing and have no pulse or at most a very weak one", that's pretty damned good.

On average, only 5–10% of people who receive CPR survive.

100% of people shot multiple times through the head at close range by a bazooka who receive CPR die. Obviously that doesn't tell you anything about whether it's valuable to learn CPR.

On average, only 5–10% of people who receive CPR survive.

But that's still better than the 0-1% who don't.

I live in San Francisco, and I've taken the Neighborhood Emergency Response Team (NERT) classes - including CPR, but also stuff like how to search a building for survivors, how to move rubble, what to pack in an earthquake kit, all kinds of useful things to put in action if I haven't already died horribly.
Similar classes highly recommended for anybody living where disaster might strike, which is most places I guess. I'm sure I won't remember everything perfectly, but I'll be much more useful (again, assuming I live) than if I hadn't taken the classes.

On average, only 5–10% of people who receive CPR survive.

This seems like a bizarrely pessimistic viewpoint. If those 5-10% of people wouldn't have survived otherwise, then that seems like a huge payoff. Anyway, I coach kids' athletics, so knowing CPR seems like a valuable skill. Imagine if a kid died, and maybe I could have saved him or her if only I knew what to do. I don't think I could live with myself.

If you don't know or remember what to do, just call for help and start chest compressions. There's been a big push to emphasize starting and continuing chest compressions in an arrest. Only 2 breaths are recommended per 30 compressions now.

1. Airway
2. Breathing
3. Compression (or is it Cardio? Anyway, it's get the heart beating)

The latest protocols (just had my refresher last Thursday...got me out of a faculty retreat, so a double-win!) focus on compression, first, so it is now CAB (sorry, Steve!).

Apparently, the focus on compressions has resulted in quicker intervention, and coupled with enhancements in emergency services, the rate of survival is inching upward. I've heard success rates as high as 25%, but not entirely sure of the corresponding circumstances.

All that said, CPR is actually a fairly poor way to pump the blood through the body ... pushing on the sternum does a relatively poor job of compressing the ventricles in a superior-going manner, and leaves a decent chunk of blood still sitting there, doing nothing.

More than a decade ago, Les Geddes (if you know someone with a pacemaker or implantable defibrilator, thank Les) tried to popularize an approach to CPR that used something akin to "home plate" to push down on the abdominal end of the rib cage, thus forcing more of the blood in the heart to circulate through the body. Of course, nobody was willing to try it in a clinical trial, so (as far as I know) a better way to save people may well be sitting on a shelf down the hall from the classroom in which I teach.

so it is now CAB (sorry, Steve!).

Oh crap, how am I going to remember that? Think "Calloway, Calloway, Calloway"?

Tom ditch the current info stick with the old. Hell they tell you to be on the side of the person for chest compressions because they say its to uncofortable to straddle. #### that do what you have to do. And if you break a few ribs it.means your doing it right.

Tom ditch the current info stick with the old. Hell they tell you to be on the side of the person for chest compressions because they say its to uncofortable to straddle. #### that do what you have to do. And if you break a few ribs it.means your doing it right.

Ah, but Les's new approach is easier to do AND should provide respiration without the CPR administrator having to stop compressions. Here is the original news release.

The guy was right about too many crazy things for me to dismiss it out of hand. (Not that it will ever be likely to catch on...but maybe someone will try it and prove/disprove his claims.)

Surely we need to see the replay before we know if he made the right call.

Apparently, the focus on compressions has resulted in quicker intervention

Plus it delays the whole icky making out with a stranger thing. :-)

Am I crazy or were they at one point recommending pinching and twisting the skin near the heart to shock the body into starting up?

I'm glad it's now CAB, because I'd rather avoid the icky mouth to mouth.

edit---unless it's a loved one in distress.

This seems like a bizarrely pessimistic viewpoint.

Let me guess who quoted it! ;-)

(It can't really count as a guess.)

Anyway, I coach kids' athletics, so knowing CPR seems like a valuable skill. Imagine if a kid died, and maybe I could have saved him or her if only I knew what to do. I don't think I could live with myself.

That's the comment that drove this home. I'm finding myself a course.