Health minister urges public awareness of CPR

[Paphos Life]

Health Minister Michalis Hadjipantela on Monday underlined the importance of cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), urging everyone to familiarise with the practice. He spoke ahead of "World Restart A Heart Day", an annual event held on October 16 aimed at raising public awareness on cardiopulmonary diseases and how to deal with potential...

Read the article and chat about it below...

[trevnhil]

In the UK many places in towns and villages have defibrillator machines for the public to use.
Is there anything like that in public places in Cyprus?

[galexinda]

There is an interesting article on Page 4 in the October issue of Pals Magazine about Cyprus Emergency Responders Paphos District Volunteers which offers first aid services including CPR in various locations in the Paphos District.

http://palscyprus.com/pals-magazine-october-2022-issue/

It has a FB group for further more detailed information: https://www.facebook.com/groups/334553818633098

[jeba]

CPR/ first aid classes should be made mandatory at school and if you want a driver license.

[WHL]

Unless you have had medical training to a very high degree you can do more damage then good.

[memory man]

Unless you have had medical training to a very high degree you can do more damage then good.

Do you have any proof of this.

[WHL]

Unless you have had medical training to a very high degree you can do more damage then good.

Do you have any proof of this.

Yes its called common sense

[memory man]

Yes its called common sense

I didn't really expect a positive or sensible answer from WHL

[Firefly]

If someone's heart has stopped beating, I fail to see what more harm you can do by using CPR.

[Dominic]

Unless you have had medical training to a very high degree you can do more damage then good.

Sorry, but that is bullshit. You cannot do more harm, because the person you are attempting to administer CPR to is already dead. You may break the person's ribs, but given that they are dead they won't object.

As it is, chances of surviving CPR out in the wild are quite low anyway (around 20% according to Google).

If you administered CPR and prevented somebody else better qualified from doing it, then I guess you could do more damage than good. But how would that scenario arise?

Most countries have a "Good Samaritan" law which prevents you from being sued in the event of a failed CPR attempt. I have no idea what the situation is in Cyprus. But in most places around the world you could only get sued if your job was to provide CPR to somebody and you ballsed it up.

All the above is not expert opinion, but the result of a quick google.

[wantoosoon]

If someone's heart has stopped beating, I fail to see what more harm you can do by using CPR.

I did a first aid course when working at a school in the UK about three years ago. The instructions were to check for breathing and if there was none, to attach a defibrillator if available and to perform CPR, prioritising chest compressions over breaths. In contrast to previous courses, we weren't told to check for a pulse, even without a defibrillator available (which does that too).

At first, I found this confusing, but I think the training is like this because pulses can be very hard for non-medical professionals to detect and too much time can be wasted checking for one. Doing CPR on a healthy person is very unlikely to lead to serious harm and the main priority is to keep blood circulating.

That's my long-winded way of saying that CPR may well be performed on someone with a beating heart. My point is moot though because CPR on a beating heart is unlikely to do harm!

[wantoosoon]

Im inclined to er on the side of caution , agreed if the persons heart has stopped then its a win win senario, but not being a qualified doctor you could mis diagnose the patient and if their heart is actually still beating a couple of hundred joules to the chest could stop it, or you forgot to shout " Clear " prior to hitting the button and a fellow helper gets zapped . Now fortunately we are not in that very silly country called America where you can sue anyone for anything all the time ! But here in Cyprus if you did accidentally do harm could you be sued for it ? The concept is good so long as we proceed with caution.

A defibrillator will only shock a heart that is in fibrillation. Also, the machine shouts "Clear!" for you.

[WHL]

Unless you have had medical training to a very high degree you can do more damage then good.

Sorry, but that is bullshit. You cannot do more harm, because the person you are attempting to administer CPR to is already dead. You may break the person's ribs, but given that they are dead they won't object.

As it is, chances of surviving CPR out in the wild are quite low anyway (around 20% according to Google).

If you administered CPR and prevented somebody else better qualified from doing it, then I guess you could do more damage than good. But how would that scenario arise?

Most countries have a "Good Samaritan" law which prevents you from being sued in the event of a failed CPR attempt. I have no idea what the situation is in Cyprus. But in most places around the world you could only get sued if your job was to provide CPR to somebody and you ballsed it up.

All the above is not expert opinion, but the result of a quick google.

I take your point about if the heart has already stopped, but 99% of regular people have had no medical training, take this scenario , we are waiting in lidl's. On the wall there is the equipment , someone collapses on the ground, who really knows whether that person, has had a heart attack seizure, or just fainted, that's what I meant about having medical knowledge.