In 1892, when he reported his efforts to use external chest compressions to revive a patient, Dr. Friedrich Maass said, “I now had to regard the patient as dead. In spite of this, I returned immediately to the direct compression of the region of the heart.”
Is there a difference between cardiac arrest and a heart attack? That is one of the most misunderstood facets of heart health. A heart attack is a circulation issue and can occur when an artery supplying blood to the heart is blocked. Cardiac arrest is an electrical issue and involves a change in the normal heartbeat so that blood is not delivered to the organs and the brain.
When performing CPR make sure to tilt the person’s head back and lift their chin. This will open their airways and is an important step that shouldn’t be overlooked.
Truth be told, you hope that you never have to use your emergency training, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t be prepared. Having CPR and first aid training is the best way to hope for the best, but still know that you’ll be able to help those around you if needed.
In some settings, small defibrillators are used in conjunction with CPR to help shock the heart into restarting. As early as 1775, the first experiments were conducted regarding the effects of electrical shock on mammalian hearts.
The 20th century “inventors” of CPR, Peter Safar and James Elam, first published their CPR findings in a number of medical journals of the time. Their techniques included how to take control of a person's breathing via their airways through the tilting of the head and opening of the mouth.
