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Thursday, April 21, 2016

SLICC has proven that CPR is broken and has cast a plan to fix it.

Bystander  CPR as presently taught is something only one in six people can perform for ten minutes on a 40th percentile manikin! Four times as many people can compress a chest for ten minutes if they use the heel of the foot. (American Journal of Emergency Medicine, October 2015)

Further, the victim chest stiffness / rescuer weight mismatch prevents many from performing even one two-inch compression on the person with whom they live. For example, the average adult chest requires 130 pounds to be compressed two inches. Using manual compression, you need to weigh at least 156 pounds to be able to compress that average chest.

That's why I bought my wife a weight vest for Christmas.

Actually, I didn't - I bought an AED. We keep it handy and take it with us when we travel.

Things are bleak on the EMS side of the business, as well. The stiffness / weight mismatch also affects EMTs and Paramedics. If an ambulance crew is going to be able to provide two-inch compressions to 80% of adults, they both must weigh at least 216 pounds. Additionally, the 383 EMTs and Paramedics we tested tended to compress way to rapidly and tend to leave too much weight on the breast bone at the top of the supposedly full recoil stroke. This is all fixable, but it's going to take a concerted effort and mechanical chest compression devices on the ambulances.

Bob