You may have heard through the grapevine that there are changes to the the resuscitation protocol (routine) that you were taught on your last first aid course.
Firstly, do not feel that the information you learnt on your course is now no good or of no use. Although there are new guidelines, the Resuscitation Councils worldwide have made it clear that the 'old' guidelines should not be regarded as useless. The Health & Safety Executive has given training organizations in the U.K. up to June 2006 to start training the new guidelines, so if there was any doubt about the effectiveness of previous guidelines, things would have had to move a lot quicker!
ILCOR (The International Liaison Committee on Resuscitation) meet every five years or so and share research from all the Resuscitation Councils throughout the world including The Resuscitation Council (U.K.). It is from this research that new guidelines are issued and I will summarise them here, together with their rationale as I understand them.
First off all the main message that seems to come through is the need to simplify information so that it is retained longer. One of the ways they (ILCOR) have done this is to take out some of the 'exceptions', for example the only time you would now 'work for one minute if alone' is in the case of a child or drowning victim; the rationale behind this is that drowning is easily identified. In all other cases you should leave your casualty if they are not breathing and call for an ambulance. It is also worth mentioning here about agonal breathing since lots of 'rescuers' believe a casualty to be breathing when in fact they are not.
AGONAL
BREATHING
This is a term used to describe 'gasps' of breath by a casualty with SCA (Sudden
Cardiac Arrest). This happens in up to 40% of victims for a few minutes after
SCA and is often confused with 'normal' or 'noisy' breathing. It is however
a sign that CPR should be initiated immediately (once an ambulance has been
called). For this reason, if you are in any doubt about if your casualty is
breathing or not, assume not.
THE IMPORTANCE
OF 'QUALITY' CHEST COMPRESSIONS
Research shows that when a person collapses with SCA their lungs are, at that
time, oxygenated. The priority now is to get some of that oxygenated blood
to the brain and heart and so this is the reason why we now start the CPR
process with chest compressions; the number is now 30 not 15
as before.
NON-VENTILATED
CPR
Research has shown that a person in need of CPR who only receives chest compressions
and NOT rescue breaths still has a chance of survival, even though inflations
COMBINED with chest compressions would be preferable. If you are unable to
give rescue breaths (badly injured or contaminated face, for example) or unwilling
for other reasons then continuous chest compressions will still give the casualty
a better chance of survival rather than nothing.
PAEDIATRIC BLS (Basic Life Support) has also been simplified to come in line with the adult guidelines. Having said that ILCOR go on to say that child/ baby resuscitation can be made more suitable if you start with five breaths. They then go on to give further guidelines if you are a 'healthcare professional with a duty to respond to paediatric emergencies'.
That's all I am writing here so click on the links to see some specific information, all of which will be in my new book FIRST AID EXPLAINED. This can be previewed here or ordered as from 20 January.
Alan Whitlock
Author - First Aid Explained