CPR for every BODY – that’s the message from BC Ambulance.
During Heart Health Month, BC Emergency Health Services is focusing on breaking down a particular stigma that good Samaritans might have when giving life-saving CPR or using an AED, namely exposing someone’s breasts during a cardiac arrest.
A study done in the U.K. found that one in three people were “reluctant” to do CPR on women for fear of exposing their chest and breasts, explained Brian Twaites, BCEHS public information officer.
Another study, conducted in North America in 2020, showed fewer women were being treated with an AED, explained BCEHS’ Rachelle Bown, “due to fear of exposing their breasts.”
“We want people to realize it’s okay to touch a woman – or a person who has breasts – if they need life-saving care,” Twaites said, adding, “Just go ahead and do it, it’s okay.”
People might do CPR, which can be done over clothing, but “let’s take it that one step further” and expose the chest and apply AED patches.
“It’s okay to touch someone’s body to give them that life-saving care because we know CPR in combination with an AED can more than double your chance of survivability,” Twaites added.
There are 60,000 cardiac arrests in Canada per year.
To get people used to touching someone with breasts, more and more training programs are using mannequins with breasts and nipples.
The irony is all dummies used in the past for practicing CPR, including those paramedics trained on, didn’t have breasts – and, yet, they were called the “CPR Annie,” Twaites said.
Twaites and Bown recently demonstrated how to do compressions and apply an AED on a CPR Annie with breasts at the Cambie Road ambulance station in Richmond.
“You can save a life by doing this, so we’re hoping that that messaging (is conveyed) saying it’s okay to touch a body to save a life,” Bown added.
Call takers talk public through life-saving measures
Twaites and Bown encourage the public to take a first aid course, which can be done through the Life-Saving Society, Red Cross and St. John’s Ambulance in the event of a family member, friend or even stranger having a cardiac arrest.
In his 38-year career as a paramedic, Twaites said he’s come across many good Samaritans doing CPR and applying an AED.
However, when paramedics arrive, they’ll ask what they should do – to which, Twaites has replied “push that button.”
“That person now had a pulse because they did it,” Twaites said.
Bown reminded the public to call 9-1-1 immediately if someone is not breathing or is breathing in a slow and irregular pattern.
Also, even if someone took CPR training 20 years ago or never at all, Bown said people should phone 9-1-1, where call takers will “coach” them on the CPR steps.
The app "Pulse Point," available at the Apple Store and on Google, sends out an alert if someone is having a cardiac arrest within 400 metres. This alerts anyone with CPR training and who has the app to go and assist.
The app also has the capability to tell the person if an AED is nearby.
In B.C., premises with an AED are encouraged to register them so emergency medical call takers are aware of their location.
Pulse Point is facilitated by BCEHS, and they encourage anyone trained in CPR to download the app.
Over the years, CPR protocols have changed whereby it’s been recognized that mouth-to-mouth resuscitation isn’t always necessarily.
“Hands-only CPR” – that is, doing only chest compressions – can be done “as a person’s bloodstream already has enough oxygen to circulate with only compressions,” Twaites said.
With hands-only CPR, many people are surviving heart attacks “neurologically intact,” he added.
“If you’re afraid of doing mouth-to-mouth, you can do (just) compressions,” he added.
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