13th General Election’s Results May Cause You a Heart Attack
There is an intense atmosphere everywhere. As the expected and the unexpected results roll in, emotions run high and suddenly the person at the next table clenches his chest, falls hard to the ground and becomes unconscious.
Noel Silas Savarimuthu
Emergency Medical Technician
Malaysian Red Crescent
Polling stations have closed and the counting process has begun. You are sitting at a café waiting for the results to roll in. There is an intense atmosphere everywhere. As the expected and the unexpected results roll in, emotions run high and suddenly the person at the next table clenches his chest, falls hard to the ground and becomes unconscious. The victim has stopped breathing and his heart has stopped beating. He has about 4 to 6 minutes before brain damage begins to occur. Do you know what to do?
The victim would have about 30% or more chances of survival if there was a by-stander trained in Cardio Pulmonary Resuscitation or CPR. Without wasting time a trained by-stander would shout out “Someone dial 999, get an ambulance, he is having a heart attack”. The by-stander would then be seen compressing the victim’s chest and giving rescue breathing.
Are you trained in CPR? Poke the person next to you and ask if he or she is trained in CPR. If both of you answer “No”, you are both in trouble. Would you like to learn CPR NOW?
While a full set CPR syllabus would need about 4 hours to train, “HANDS ONLY CPR”technique needs a couple of minutes to learn and master.
In 2008 the American Heart Association (AHA) released HANDS ONLY CPR as there were concerns about CPR trained by-stander refusing to perform the lifesaving skills on a complete stranger fearing possible transmission of disease from the victim to the rescuer when mouth to mouth breathing is applied. AHA then proceeded to encourage the training of HANDS ONLY CPR techniques as it is easy to learn and only has 2 steps to perform.
Now Everyone Can Perform Hands Only CPR!!!
In the event of a collapse, cardiac arrest, drowning, electrocution or any other reason where you find a victim has fallen unconscious and is not breathing, make sure it is safe to touch the victim and immediately perform the following 2 lifesaving steps.
1) Direct someone or call 999 yourself and request for an ambulance.
2) Place the heel of your palms with your hands clenched, in the middle of the victim’s chest and deliver 100 compressions a minute, press hard and fast. Do not STOP until the paramedics ask you to stop.
Compressing the chest hard and fast moves the victim’s oxygenated blood to the brains and keeps the brain cells alive while waiting for the ambulance to arrive. Even if Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen were paramedics on duty at a hospital near you, they will never be able to reach the victim in time before irreversible brain damage begins in a time span as short as 4 minutes after the collapse. The victim’s only chance of survival would come from the actions of the people nearest to him. Choose to be trained. By-Stander CPR Saves Life.
Noel Silas Savarimuthu
Emergency Medical Technician
