Resuscitation: dare to do it!

Larissa Melville completed her traineeship in the editorial team of . After studying biology at Ludwig Maximilians University and the Technical University of Munich, she first got to know digital media online at Focus and then decided to learn medical journalism from scratch.

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A person collapses in front of your eyes, lies unconscious on the floor and is no longer breathing. Do you know what to do? The scenario describes acute cardiac arrest, which can be fatal within minutes. He can meet anyone, even young people, anytime, anywhere. Immediate resuscitation can save the life of the person affected - but help is rare in Germany.

The first aid rate is shockingly low: only 30 to 35 percent of people who witness cardiovascular arrest intervene immediately and do a chest compressions. A fatal inaction, because without this immediate measure, the patient's chance of survival is minimal.

"Because laypeople often do insufficient resuscitation as first aiders on site or do nothing for fear of mistakes, over 60,000 people in Germany die of sudden cardiac death every year," says emergency physician and cardiologist Dietrich Andresen. One must therefore ensure that the easy-to-learn chest compressions become a matter of course for everyone, and that applies equally to schoolchildren and adults, according to the expert.

Broken ribs are one of them

The resuscitation is not rocket science. There is no place for fear of causing damage from a faulty heart massage. Even broken ribs are to be accepted - in this case they are the lesser evil.

In the Netherlands and Scandinavia, by the way, people are not afraid of immediate help: the first-aid rate here is over 70 percent - and so the number of lives saved is significantly higher.

The German Heart Foundation would like such quotas also in Germany and is therefore starting a nationwide awareness campaign with short training courses. "This is the only way we can get closer to our goal of having high-quality lay resuscitation carried out in at least 80 percent of all people who have observed cardiac arrest within the next three years," emphasizes Prof. Thomas Meinertz, Chairman of the Board of the German Heart Foundation.

The basics of resuscitation

So that you are prepared in the worst case, here is the basics of first aid knowledge:

A person collapses in front of your eyes and lies unconscious on the ground. It does not react to shaking, shouting or pinching. He is not breathing or is just gurgling - he is probably in acute cardiac arrest. Now every second counts, because after ten minutes the organs are so damaged that resuscitation is no longer possible - the person dies. Now it's your turn:

1. Test the person's unconsciousness by shouting and shaking their shoulders.
2. Call the emergency services on 112. Answer the following questions: Where is the emergency? What happened? How many injured / affected people need to be cared for? What injuries or symptoms do the patients have? Always wait for questions from the rescue coordination center!
3. Check the person's breathing.
4. If the person concerned does not breathe normally (caution: rattling and snapping is not normal breathing!) Immediately start with a chest compressions. To do this, kneel to the side of the patient lying on their back and place the heels of your hands on top of each other on the middle of the sternum between the nipples. With your arms straight, press your chest quickly (100 to 120 times per minute) and forcefully (at least two inches deep) in the direction of your spine. Perform chest compressions without a break until the emergency services arrive.
   Rescuers who are able to ventilate the patient should combine chest compressions with a donation of breath: 30 chest compressions should be followed by two breaths of one second each, which lead to a clearly visible uplift of the chest.
   Important: chest compressions always take precedence over mouth-to-mouth or mouth-to-nose resuscitation. When inexperienced, focus on the heart. There is enough oxygen in the blood for about eight minutes.The main problem is that in cardiac arrest, oxygen is no longer pumped into the brain. This is exactly what cardiac massage prevents: because it is used to create an artificial blood circulation that continues to supply the body and, above all, the brain of the person concerned with oxygen.
5. If other helpers are also on site, you can take turns giving each other chest compressions. However, the process may be interrupted for a few seconds.
6. If you have a defibrillator at your disposal - i.e. a device that can make the heart beat again with an electric shock - use it. An automatic voice tells you what to do. However, continue performing the chest compressions: “When connecting the defibrillator, the chest compressions should not be interrupted if possible, and if so, only briefly interrupted. Here, too, the following applies: "If the brain is not supplied with oxygen, thousands of brain cells die," reports emergency physician Andresen.

You can also find detailed information on the subject of acute cardiac arrest on the homepage of the German Heart Foundation (www.herzstiftung.de). You can also request a free cardiac emergency kit there.

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