6 Minutes to Save a Life

Could you do it?

Textbook Response

Linda Jones's two-year-old son, Reilly, was sharing a hot dog on the deck overlooking her friend Lisa Roth's swimming pool. One moment Jones was watching Reilly goof around with the other children at this gathering of moms and kids last July. The next moment he was gone. Jones turned to her friend Maschel Rawlings and asked, "Have you seen Reilly?"

Rawlings stood, scanned the pool and suddenly screamed. Reilly was floating facedown in the deep end. What happened next was a textbook response: As Rawlings dove in the pool, grasped the boy, rolled him over and swam him to the edge, their host, Lisa Roth, rushed into the house and called 911. At the pool's edge, Rawlings handed Reilly up to his mother. His skin was blue, his eyes had rolled back in his head. He wasn't breathing.

Jones laid him next to the pool, and Rawlings, who'd taken a CPR course with Jones just four months earlier, immediately began rescue breathing. Hanging up the phone, Roth, a former flight attendant who'd had seven CPR courses over the years, ran back out to the pool and took over CPR from Rawlings. Three long minutes went by with Roth breathing into Reilly's mouth and performing chest compressions while Rawlings and Jones monitored his condition.

Gradually his color returned, and then, just as paramedics were arriving on the scene, Rawlings looked at Roth. "He's breathing," she said.

The decisiveness with which the women acted saved Reilly's life. Linda Jones finds it hard to express her feelings for her two friends. "I'm eternally grateful," she says simply. "They did everything right."

Would you do everything right? Experts estimate that once the heart stops, there is a crucial window of four to six minutes to restore circulation. Nationwide, fire and rescue operations are having a tough time finding paramedics. A shortage would mean response times could stray beyond that six-minute mark. There's a real possibility that you could face a situation in which a person's life depends on your knowledge and ability.

Keep this guide handy for dealing with summertime emergencies, but also sign up for training in CPR -- something every American should know.

CPR
Cardiopulmonary resuscitation -- CPR -- is the cornerstone of emergency medicine. There are lots of reasons why someone's breathing or heartbeat might stop -- heart attack, stroke, drowning, electrocution, overdose and many others. Whatever the cause, the required action is the same: Put oxygen into the victim's lungs by performing rescue breathing, and circulate it through the body by doing chest compressions. These instructions are for use on unresponsive victims age 8 and older.

1. Have someone call 911 or the number for Emergency Medical Services (EMS) in your area. She should also check to see if an automated external defibrillator (AED) is nearby. These devices can shock the heart back into a normal rhythm and are found in many public locations, from airplanes to restaurants.

2. With victim lying faceup, tilt the head back by lifting the chin up with one hand, pushing down on the forehead with the other hand, to open the airway.

3. Look, listen and feel for signs of normal breathing (chest rising and falling, breath on your face or ear) for about five seconds.

4. If victim is not breathing, pinch the nostrils shut and give two slow full mouth-to-mouth breaths, making sure a good seal is formed and making sure you see the chest rise.

5. Check for normal breathing, moving and coughing -- signs of circulation.

6. If victim begins regular breathing and regains consciousness, monitor until help comes. If he is breathing but unconscious, turn him onto his side and monitor until help arrives.

7. If the victim is still not breathing, moving or coughing within 5 to 10 seconds, give 15 chest compressions at a steady rhythm of about 2 per second: Place the heel of one hand with the other atop it at the center of the breastbone directly between the nipples. Lock your elbows and align your shoulders directly above your hands. Push down just enough to move the breastbone about one and a half to two inches.

8. Repeat rescue breaths and chest compressions. After four cycles, check for signs of breathing and circulation.

9. Until circulation and breathing return or help arrives, continue compressions and rescue breaths at a ratio of 15 to 2. Check for signs of circulation and breathing every few minutes.

• • Family Safety

• Do You Know CPR?
• Learn a lifesaving procedure, on your own schedule.
• 
• 7 First-Aid Standbys You Should Never Use
• Update your first-aid kit and learn which common treatments can be dangerous to use in an emergency.
• 
• Safety Resources
• Discover what you can do to protect those you love by checking out the best safety and first-aid information available online.
• 
• Swimming Pool Safety
• Keep your kids safe at the pool this summer.
• 

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While I sat in the reception area of my doctor's office, a woman rolled an elderly man in a wheelchair into the room. As she went to the receptionist's desk, the man sat there, alone and silent. Just as I was thinking I should make small talk with him, a little boy slipped off his mother's lap and walked over to the wheelchair. Placing his hand on the man's, he said, "I know how you feel. My mom makes me ride in the stroller too."

-- Steve Anderson, Negaunee, Mich.