CPR

RACTICE: How do you know when to stop helping?

CardioPulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) is a procedure that can save the life of another in a cardiac or breathing emergency by restoring partial flow of oxygenated blood to the brain and heart, thus delaying tissue death and brain damage.

It is simple to do but remembering the 7-step sequencing is challenging.

There are some parallels between us and the steps of CPR. These steps may suggest ways to give and ask for help when we are in trouble – stopping the damage to self and others.

Step 1: Check the person and the scene –are you or am I okay? If not

Step 2: Call for assistance – ask for help. How many times might we have avoided a major screw up if we had uttered just one word to family, friend or foe – “HELP.”

Step 3: Open the airway. Requesting help requires a change of position (attitude) to receive the help needed.

Step 4: Check for breathing. Be open and honest about your need. This is not the time for silence or a partial story. Otherwise, it is difficult to move to the next step.

Step 5: Chest Compressions. To help you look critically at your situation requires some hard questions be asked and answered. The person asking takes a big risk and you may feel like you are being crushed – answer!

Step 6: Deliver rescue breaths. The person trying to help can listen and help you develop a strategy to be restored. These “rescue breaths” are only as useful as you allow them to be.

Step 7: Continue CPR steps – until the person shows life or a trained medical professional arrives. The one giving the help at some point will become too exhausted to continue. Professional help, if accepted, may be the answer or_____. You fill in the blank.

When I think of these steps and of the times I have responded to a cry for help, I can see how they are applicable to what transpired. I see my mistakes i.e., not asking the hard questions (step 5) or continuing to try to offer help when I should have stopped and/or urged the recipient to seek professional advice (Step7).

What I can confidently report is this - I have learned knowing what to do when help is requested is as important as knowing when to request help. Knowing when to release someone that I am trying to help to their own demise or professional help is perhaps a lifesaver for both parties.

Remember the goal of CPR is to help until one can breathe independently or a trained professional arrives.

Proverbs 3:27

PONDER THIS THOUGHT---Knowing when to stop is as important as knowing when to start.