The Palo Alto Fire Department wants to help you and yours stay alive.
This Tuesday, firefighters and paramedics gathered at Lytton Plaza Tuesday to offer free cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) training. They aimed to update the public on the new suggested method, which focuses on compression only.
"This week is national CPR awareness week and we wanted to come out and have people practice how to give compressions," said Emergency Medical Services Chief Kimberly Roderick. "It's important that they practice."
According to Roderick, whereas before the focus was on teaching people who come upon someone with no pulse to give them two breaths and 15 compressions, the emphasis is now solely on compressions over breaths. The palms of the hands should be right at the sternum on the chest, in between the two nipples, and the person shouldn't bend their elbows as they compress down.
"They are emphasizing compressions over breaths because they weren't getting enough circulation throughout the body and blood carries oxygen throughout the body," she said, "And the people should continue to give CPR until the paramedics arrive."
This is why, Firefighter/Engineer Adam Palsgrove emphasized that the first thing anyone should do is call 9-1-1.
The best rate of compression, Roderick explained, is 100 compressions per minute, which conveniently can be measure by musical beats.
"So we got music that is 100 beats a minute," she said.
The American Heart Association encourages people to think about the Bee Gees song "Stayin' Alive," but Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean," "Breakout" from Swing Out Sister made an appearance as did "Shake Your Bom Bom" by Ricky Martin.
What sound would you think of?
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