Thank you so, so much for the kind words about Pippa. Kristien and I are very upset and still feel extremely shocked by how quickly it happened. It helped me greatly to write about and process my feelings and know that others would miss Pippa, too. Sharing how I felt helped get me through the day… your kind words helped keep us focused on our positive memories. <3 I’m so sorry to hear that so many of us have recently lost a beloved pet.
To everyone who asked about Henry – although he was there when it happened, I put him in his crib and closed the door when I started to give Pippa CPR, so he didn’t see much.. at least he didn’t understand much. He keeps asking for her but will probably move on quickly. I am thankful that he can’t really comprehend what happened.
This instance made me aware of how much I need a CPR refresher. A cat’s death is nothing like a human’s death, and performing CPR on Pippa was nothing like performing CPR on another person. But the moment did make me realize how ill-prepared I am for emergencies, despite being certified in CPR. I wanted to link to some websites that I hope you will visit. We all need safety reminders every now and then.
Edited to add: I’m getting a lot of feedback about how some of the original videos that I linked to are outdated or confusing. The LAST thing I want to do is confuse someone in regards to such an important issue. So I’m just going to link to some other websites and leave it at that. Sorry if anyone was confused. As I said, the intent was to spread information, but that’s not very valuable if it’s out-of-date or overwhelming. The best course for me is probably just to urge people to get certified.
American Heart Association website on CPR
American Red Cross website on CPR
American Red Cross website on choking
I will definitely be getting re-certified in CPR very soon. Visit the American Red Cross to learn how.
I’m a paramedic and I’d like to point out that these are NOT the current guidelines for CPR. In single lay person (ie not a medical team or two people) CPR for an adult, it’s actually NOT recommended to give rescue breaths.
The American Heart and Stroke Association recognizes that most adult cardiac arrests are truly cardiac events and therefor compressions and early defibrillation are the key to a higher survival rate. There’s also the stigma of giving mouth to mouth (which should NEVER be done), so this has removed that and made people more likely to help.
If you don’t have a barrier between you and the person, don’t perform any rescue breaths. It’s not just the transmission of disease to the rescuer that is a concern, but also the fact that most patients receiving CPR vomit with no warning, and that you can give them an infection which could hamper their recovery if they do survive the event.
If there are two people, the patient is an adult, and you have a barrier method, by all means continue the 30:2 ratio, but minimize the time you spend not doing compressions. I’m fuzzy on the statistic I was quoted last time I recertified, but something like 10 seconds not doing compressions means a 15% drop in survivability. It takes 2 minutes to build up the blood pressure from doing compressions and every time you stop it drops again, and this pressure is all that’s maintaining oxygenation to the brain and other organs.
For children, especially those without a cardiac history, these are usually hypoxic (low oxygen) events, so breaths become more important. Clear any airway obstruction you can, but NEVER delay compressions or defibrillation even for a second in favor of breaths.
The ONLY thing that can give someone a hope of survival (and then a hope of recovery) is compressions until an AED can be applied and hopefully there’s still a shockable electrical pattern in the heart that may restart it.