Cardio Pulmonary Resuscitation

Cardio Pulmonary Resuscitation or CPR is performed when a person's heart has stopped due to a heart attack or drowning. CPR consists of pushing on the chest at a rate of 100 compressions per minute, to mechanically restart the natural heart movement. Currently, the survival rate of a heart attack is 6%, and with CPR, this chance of recovery increases to 12%.

It is recommended that breathing is applied to the patient at regular intervals, although this is disputed by new reports which indicate that CPR compressions alone provide the best chance of resuscitation.

CPR is best performed by two operators who swap every 5 minutes.

Several automated devices are available such as the Lucas CPR and Auto-Pulse, which are reported to increase the survival rate to 20%, but there is an increased chance of broken ribs if the device is not aligned correctly.