A co-worker once went into cardiac arrest and, thankfully, survived due to another co-worker performing CPR. I held the affected co-worker's head while the CPR was being performed.
A bit of googling shows it is widely discussed and was once in CPR guidelines (but isn't any more). https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34034775/ is a recent randomized trial that found no improvement.
On a whim, I did EMT-B training a few years ago. Part of that course is a responder-level CPR cert. Through muscle memory, one of my fellow students jumped on scene during the evaluation, and the first thing she did was instruct a bystander to "Call 911!"
That's what they taught us in Boy Scouts. Very first step is to get help.
Have someone call 911 (or whatever number in your country) immediately. If nobody is nearby start yelling.
Only one time in my life have I had to perform CPR (was already too late) but it is amazing how much of what I learned when I was 11 years old stuck with me.
Get help, check airway for obstructions...etc. Most importantly...take a CPR class sometime in your life and do what they say. The "ABC" of airway, breathing, circulation they taught us may not be current advice.
Sidenote: Don't be too hard on yourself if you don't save a life...even the pros say unless the patient is young/healthy you likely won't.
Edit: The feeling when the pros actually show up (in the case where I was doing CPR within minutes) is one of the biggest reliefs I have had in my life. Even knowing CPR...you feel helpless until they show up. And once they do ask immediately if they need you. If not...get out of the way.
Some experts believe that some situations may see better outcomes if circulation is prioritized over respiration. Most experts agree that it is still best to teach ABC.
I was taught "point at someone and tell them 'you, specifically, call 911'" but I like touch a lot better. Makes more sense for getting someone to actually do it.
Touching someone when asking them to do something is a well known psychological trick. It immediately increases intimacy, which makes the person more likely to do what you ask. Though it can also backfire if the person is particularly sensitive and finds the intimacy uncomfortable.
"Please don't sneer, including at the rest of the community." (Edit: ok, maybe I was overinterpreting your comment a little bit on this one.)
If instead of posting this you had taken the time to click on https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=bookofjoe, you would already know that bookofjoe worked for 38 years as a neurosurgical anesthesiologist.
> I don't know if the author of this post had any medical credentials.
In his defense, this is written on his personal blog where (quite possibly) many readers already have some reason to trust his advice. And while I'm not sure what counts as appropriate credentials, on his linked HN bio (https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=bookofjoe) he claims to be a "Retired (38 years in practice) neurosurgical anesthesiologist". He also links to a lot of Google Scholar papers on medical topics for which he is a co-author.
(Oops, beaten by Dan, but I'll leave it up anyway. While I agree with Dan that you might have phrased it a bit better, I did think it was a fair question.)
I write more about the whole process here: https://x.com/alexpotato/status/2094412327785316661
Some key takeaways:
- I had taken CPR many times before
- I watched the entire even unfold from watching co-worker walk in to seizure like symptoms to not breathing to urinating on themselves
- I essentially "froze"
- This was despite having years of working in high stress environments (sports tournaments/SRE on a trading floor)
- I was literally overcome by events and could not process what was happening (despite the prior training and dealing with outages etc etc)
I HIGHLY recommend that everyone, at a minimum, watch a video on how to perform CPR. Even better, take a class.
And even if you take a class, practice on a couch cushion every once in a while.
It's just like with 911:
there are stories of people in an emergency dialing 411 b/c they were overwhelmed.
In other words, fire drills exist for a reason and the same concept can be used for CPR.
To which the evaluator responded, "You are 911"
Have someone call 911 (or whatever number in your country) immediately. If nobody is nearby start yelling.
Only one time in my life have I had to perform CPR (was already too late) but it is amazing how much of what I learned when I was 11 years old stuck with me.
Get help, check airway for obstructions...etc. Most importantly...take a CPR class sometime in your life and do what they say. The "ABC" of airway, breathing, circulation they taught us may not be current advice.
Sidenote: Don't be too hard on yourself if you don't save a life...even the pros say unless the patient is young/healthy you likely won't.
Edit: The feeling when the pros actually show up (in the case where I was doing CPR within minutes) is one of the biggest reliefs I have had in my life. Even knowing CPR...you feel helpless until they show up. And once they do ask immediately if they need you. If not...get out of the way.
https://www.redcross.org/take-a-class/resources/articles/abc...
Some experts believe that some situations may see better outcomes if circulation is prioritized over respiration. Most experts agree that it is still best to teach ABC.
I was told to point at someone and say, "YOU. Call 911."
Why am I holding their legs in the air?
Well I read it on hacker news once.
Hacker news, oh it collates techy/stem blog posts and articles.
I don't know if the author of this post had any medical credentials.
I can see why it doesn't look like they knew what they were writing about.
"Don't be snarky."
"Please don't sneer, including at the rest of the community." (Edit: ok, maybe I was overinterpreting your comment a little bit on this one.)
If instead of posting this you had taken the time to click on https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=bookofjoe, you would already know that bookofjoe worked for 38 years as a neurosurgical anesthesiologist.
In his defense, this is written on his personal blog where (quite possibly) many readers already have some reason to trust his advice. And while I'm not sure what counts as appropriate credentials, on his linked HN bio (https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=bookofjoe) he claims to be a "Retired (38 years in practice) neurosurgical anesthesiologist". He also links to a lot of Google Scholar papers on medical topics for which he is a co-author.
(Oops, beaten by Dan, but I'll leave it up anyway. While I agree with Dan that you might have phrased it a bit better, I did think it was a fair question.)