Basic cardiac life support education teaches health care providers and lay people perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), rescue breathing and the Heimlich maneuver to help choking victims. It also teaches the use of an automated external defibrillator (AED).
History
CPR in its modern incarnation was developed in 1960 but was taught only to physicians. It wasn't until the early 1970s that training lay people to perform CPR became a popular idea.
Significance
Good CPR statistics are hard to come by, since they are not monitored by any one agency. The American Heart Association, however, estimates that up to 50 percent of people with ventricular fibrillation, a fatal arrhythmia that causes the heart to flutter instead of beat normally, will survive if given CPR and defibrillation within the first few minutes of collapse.
Providers
The American Red Cross and the American Heart Association both offer basic cardiac life support education.
Time Frame
Basic cardiac life support classes usually last between four and eight hours. At the end of the class, you will be required to demonstrate your skills using a CPR model.
Fun Fact
There is an urban legend that the most popular CPR model, dubbed CPR Annie, bears the face of the daughter of a Swedish physician. The girl was said to have died after an ice skating accident because none of the bystanders knew CPR. False. In reality, the features of CPR Annie come from the death mask of an anonymous young woman who drowned in the Seine around 1900.
Tags: cardiac life, American Heart, American Heart Association, Basic cardiac life, support, Heart Association, life support