Copyright 2006 The San Diego Union-Tribune
By JOE HUGHES
The San Diego Union-Tribune
In use only six weeks by San Diego’s emergency medical responders, a new way to give CPR already is being credited with saving three lives, including that of a 37-year-old man who was camping with his son in Mission Bay Park on May 6 when he suffered a cardiac arrest.
Mayor Jerry Sanders announced this week that city paramedics and lifeguards, along with San Diego Medical Services Enterprise, which contracts with the city, now use the new CPR guidelines.
“All of the city’s paramedics and lifeguards have been trained on the technique,” Sanders said, making the announcement during national Emergency Medical Services Week.
Training of all 450 city paramedics began early last month and is nearly complete, he said.
The new standard calls for CPR to be applied continuously, 10 compressions to one breath, with emergency personnel switching off every two minutes to ensure maximum compressions are being applied, said city Medical Director Dr. Jim Dunford.
“These hard, fast continuous compressions have been shown to better perfuse the heart with oxygen than the former CPR technique,” Dunford said.
The “push hard, push fast” technique contrasts with the old way of pushing the chest periodically to check for signs of circulation.
New studies show that blood circulation increases with each chest compression, and it must be built back up after an interruption.