Attentive Safety News

Taking care of your loved ones means being ready for anything, including medical emergencies. You don’t have to be a doctor to help, though. Read on to find out what you can do a lot to keep the situation from getting worse. Here are a few tips on how to deal with an emergency if and when it happens:

1. Call 911.
This should be your first step in any situation. That way, you know help is only minutes away. Do your best to make sure the victim is in a stable condition until help arrives. If it involves a bad fall, don’t move the victim until the EMTs arrive. You might exacerbate the condition, otherwise.

2. Learn How To Deal With An Emergency.
Emergency situations commonly involve someone choking, drowning or falling down the stairs. Educate yourself by learning how to do a proper Heimlich maneuver to stop someone from choking. Enroll in a training program to know how to perform CPR on someone who drowned. These skills will definitely come in handy especially if you’ve got kids in the house. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that the leading cause of death in kids from 1 up to 14 years of age are unintentional injuries caused by accidents.

3. Have Your Emergency First Kit Ready At All Times.
Administering first aid within seconds of an accident can help keep the damage from getting worse. This is especially true if you’re dealing with a cardiac arrest. Minutes count in such cases. By performing first aid measures such as CPR or BLS techniques, you can improve the victim’s chances of survival.

Conclusion
The best way to deal with a medical emergency is to prepare for it. So get yourself emergency-ready. Enroll in a first aid certification course to get the training and knowledge you need. That way, when emergencies happen, you won’t just stand there, frantically dialing 911. You can do more than help. You can make a difference by saving a life. For more information about CPR training, get in touch with us at Attentive Safety CPR and Safety Training 1.877.531.2226.

Did you know the chance of survival falls 10% for every minute a person goes without CPR? Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) can help save lives. In 2015 cardiovascular disease accounted for more than 900,000 deaths, including nearly 500,000 due to heart attack, according to the American Heart Association. About two-thirds of deaths from heart attacks occur before the victim reaches the hospital. This is where you are of most value. Many deaths can be prevented if someone trained in CPR provides prompt, life-saving measures until trained professionals take over. You can make a difference!
Attentive Safety CPR and Safety Training offers CPR, First Aid and AED training. Register for a class today! https://www.attentivesafety.com 1.877.531.2226

Attentive Safety CPR and Safety Training offers American Heart Association CPR classes 7 days a week, day or night, to accommodate your busy schedule.​ ​You can come to us or choose the time and place of your class, and we bring the classroom to you.  There's no minimum number of students needed to set up a CPR class with us.
Attentive Safety CPR and Safety Training offers CPR, First Aid and AED training. Register for a class today! https://www.attentivesafety.com 1.877.531.2226

All medical persons and first responders should understand BLS, including nurses, doctors, fire fighters, paramedics, dentists, emergency medical technicians and all medical personnel.

Our BLS training class will teach you how to give CPR to an adult, child or infant, how to use an AED Defibrillator, how to help a conscious and unconscious choking victim, how to respond to a Cardiopulmonary emergency, and how to use basic CPR supplies such as a bag mask, valve and others.
​Attentive Safety CPR and Safety Training offers CPR, First Aid and AED training. Register for a class today! https://www.attentivesafety.com 1.877.531.2226

and is the CPR course for all medical professionals. There are two types of CPR courses: CPR and BLS. BLS is designed for anyone working in the healthcare field that may have access to medical equipment that a layperson does not.

Although most states in the U.S. have made CPR training a high school graduation requirement, it is not required of all high schools.

According to the American Heart Association, “nearly 326,000 out-of hospital sudden cardiac arrests occur annually, and 88 percent of cardiac arrests occur at home.” So why not make it mandatory for high schools students to learn CPR? Increasing the number of people trained in CPR increases the number of people who are likely to perform CPR if necessary. If 88 percent of cardiac arrests occur at home, where there may not be trained healthcare professionals present, we need high school students to be trained in CPR. If CPR training is mandatory at school, our communities can increase the number of those who could potentially save the lives of others.

Nancy Brown, CEO of the American Heart Association, stated, “We are steadfast in our commitment to creating a culture in which CPR training is just as fundamental to our education system as geometry and history.” It should be. If something ever happened to someone you loved, you should know what to do. Everyone is someone’s family, and bystander CPR can double or triple a cardiac arrest patient’s chances of survival.

By increasing the number of people who know how to perform CPR, we are working towards lowering the percent of people who do not survive sudden cardiac arrest outside of hospitals each year.

​The term Chain of Survival provides a useful metaphor for the elements of the ECC systems concept.

The 5 links in the adult out-of-hospital Chain of Survival are

• Recognition of cardiac arrest and activation of the emergency response system
• Early cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) with an emphasis on chest compressions
• Rapid defibrillation
• Basic and advanced emergency medical services 
• Advanced life support and post-cardiac arrest care
  
  

A strong Chain of Survival can improve chances of survival and recovery for victims of cardiac arrest.

IS YOUR WORKFORCE PREPARED TO RESPOND TO A WORKPLACE CARDIAC OR FIRST AID EMERGENCY?

NEW RESEARCH SAYS 50% MAY NOT BE

​You’ll never know when you’ll need to save a life. Yet new AHA research shows that most U.S. employees are not prepared to handle health emergencies in the workplace because they lack training in CPR and First Aid.
Are you one of the 50% who can locate an automated external defibrillator (AED) at work? With 10,000 cardiac arrests annually in the workplace, this small piece of information has the potential to save thousands of lives. Immediate CPR and use of an AED can double survival rates. Is your workforce prepared to respond?

​Hands-Only CPR Can Save Lives. Most people who experience cardiac arrest at home, work or in a public location die because they don't receive immediate CPR from someone on the scene. As a bystander, don't be afraid. Your actions can only help. When calling 911, you will be asked for your location. Be specific, especially if you’re calling from a mobile phone as that is not associated with a fixed address. Answering the dispatcher’s questions will not delay the arrival of help.

How to Give Hands-Only CPR. If you see a teen or adult suddenly collapse, call 911 and push hard and fast in the center of the chest to the beat of any tune that is 100 to 120 beats per minute. Immediate CPR can double or even triple a person's chance of survival.

CARDIAC ARREST occurs when the heart malfunctions and stops beating unexpectedly.

Cardiac arrest is an “ELECTRICAL” problem.

Cardiac arrest is triggered by an electrical malfunction in the heart that causes an irregular heartbeat (arrhythmia). With its pumping action disrupted, the heart cannot pump blood to the brain, lungs and other organs.

WHAT HAPPENS
Seconds later, a person becomes unresponsive, is not breathing or is only gasping. Death occurs within minutes if the victim does not receive treatment.

WHAT TO D​O
Cardiac arrest can be reversible in some victims if it's treated within a few minutes.
•  First, call 9-1-1 and start CPR right away.
•  Then, if an Automated External Defibrillator (AED) is available, use it as soon as possible.
•  If two people are available to help, one should begin CPR immediately while the other calls 9-1-1 and finds an AED.
Fast Action Can Save Lives

WHAT IS THE LINK?
Most heart attacks do not lead to cardiac arrest. But when cardiac arrest occurs, heart attack is a common cause. Other conditions may also disrupt the heart’s rhythm and lead to cardiac arrest.

What is a Heart Attack?A HEART ATTACK occurs when blood flow to the heart is bloc​ked.

A heart attack is a “CIRCULATION” problem.

A blocked artery prevents oxygen-rich blood from reaching a section of the heart. If the blocked artery is not reopened quickly, the part of the heart normally nourished by that artery begins to die.

WHAT HAPPENS?
Symptoms of a heart attack may be immediate and may include intense discomfort in the chest or other areas of the upper body, shortness of breath, cold sweats, and/or nausea/vomiting. More often, though, symptoms start slowly and persist for hours, days or weeks before a heart attack. Unlike with cardiac arrest, the heart usually does not stop beating during a heart attack. The longer the person goes without treatment, the greater the damage.

The heart attack symptoms in women can be different than men (shortness of breath, nausea/vomiting, and back or jaw pain).

WHAT TO DO
Even if you're not sure it's a heart attack, call 9-1-1 or your emergency response number. Every minute matters! It’s best to call EMS to get to the emergency room right away. Emergency medical services staff can begin treatment when they arrive — up to an hour sooner than if someone gets to the hospital by car. EMS staff are also trained to revive someone whose heart has stopped. Patients with chest pain who arrive by ambulance usually receive faster treatment at the hospital, too.

Fast Action Can Save Live

During CPR, you should push on the chest at a rate of 100 to 120 compressions per minute. The beat of “Stayin’ Alive” is a perfect match for this.

In a new study, Dr. Yoshihiro Yamahata, of Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine, and his colleagues tried using new songs to instruct a group of newly hired nurses to perform CPR. The researchers presented their findings this week at the AHA meeting in Chicago.

​"The quality of CPR is the key to [helping] the victim recover," Yamahata said. "Our solution to master adequate CPR skills is to put the educational words on several famous songs with 112 bpm and 8 beats" per measure, he said.

​If you are called on to give CPR in an emergency, you will most likely be trying to save the life of someone you love: a child, a spouse, a parent or a friend. 70 percent of out-of-hospital cardiac arrests happen in homes. Unfortunately, only about 46% of people who experience an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest get the immediate help that they need before professional help arrives.

​Cardiac arrest – an electrical malfunction in the heart that causes an irregular heartbeat (arrhythmia) and disrupts the flow of blood to the brain, lungs and other organs – is a leading cause of death. Each year, more than 350,000 out-of-hospital cardiac arrests occur in the United States.

When a person has a cardiac arrest, survival depends on immediately getting CPR from someone nearby. Almost 90 percent of people who suffer out-of-hospital cardiac arrests die. CPR, especially if performed in the first few minutes of cardiac arrest, can double or triple a person’s chance of survival.