I will start this post by making the obvious clear—like many people, I wish it wasn’t necessary to talk about CPR. I am doing so today acknowledging that the topic is not a fun one. That said, it is so vital for us to know that CPR is a vital part of how we can help each other. With heart disease being so prevalent in our country, and the world at large, multitudes of people are having cardiac events each day. For some of these people, CPR is what is going to save their life. Literally.
It is our view here at Digman Health and Performance that every adult should know CPR and practice CPR occasionally so that they can act when necessary. It’s not easy to act in the case of an emergency. I worked as a bedside nurse for many years and even for properly trained medical professionals there is a hesitancy there. No one wants to start CPR on someone even when they know how to do it and have other resources around them. For those among us who don’t know how to do it, or how to do the checks to decide if it’s needed, the unknown often proves to be too much to overcome. Hence the need for training, on a regular basis. To be extra clear—please get trained in CPR so you can know if it’s needed and how to do it if necessary!
The easiest way to see the power of people knowing CPR is hearing a story of how it saved someone. We share one such story in our podcast “Fit and Healthy/Healthy and Fit?” episode with Scott Penticoff. Please listen. The short version is that CPR, and defibrillation, saved Scott’s life. He is working now to expand knowledge on the potential for CPR and to bring training to the real world of people’s lives. We totally agree on the goal. Please get yourself trained. If the costs of that training are prohibitive for you, please reach out to us and we’ll help get that fixed so you can learn and practice CPR.
This is not to say that CPR is without its limits. There is a good bit of information out now that highlights the limits of CPR and the need for quick defibrillation as well. We have also seen an increasing amount of coverage of how CPR is not a cure for mortality. There are limits to how well CPR can work especially if people have a number of other medical issues causing their hearts to stop. A good article on that subject can be read here.
While not perfect, CPR still serves as a vital way we can help each other. Please get trained and stay trained in CPR! We can all hope you never need to do it but if the situation arises, I guarantee you’ll be very glad you spent those few hours on that training.