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# No Heartbeat | |
## When to give chest compressions | |
Check for a pulse (heartbeat) on the neck. Or listen by putting your | |
ear on | |
the left side of the chest. | |
check for a pulse | |
Where to listen on the chest | |
If there is no heartbeat, try to restart it with chest compressions. | |
It is important to start chest compressions quickly, so if you are | |
not sure if you have found a heartbeat, or if the heartbeat is very | |
faint, it is safest to do chest compressions. | |
Give chest compressions | |
Push hard and fast on the center of the chest 30 times. Push | |
straight down, about 5 cm (2 in). Try for a fast rate, at least 100 | |
times a minute, but the exact rate is not important. Push hard and | |
fast! | |
Chest compressions | |
Give rescue breaths | |
After 30 chest compressions, give 2 rescue breaths that make the | |
chest rise. | |
rescue breaths | |
Continue with compressions and breaths | |
Keep alternating between 30 chest compressions and 2 rescue breaths. | |
You may have to do this for a long time. Continue until the person | |
is breathing and alert, or until there is no doubt he is dead. | |
Get help | |
If you can get the person to a hospital quickly, do so. Keep giving | |
chest compressions and rescue breathing on the way. This will help | |
to keep the body functions going until you can get help. | |
This may bring life back to someone after electrocution, drowning, if | |
he suffered a very hard blow to the chest, hypothermia (too cold), or | |
drug overdose. Chest compressions are less likely to help someone | |
after a heart attack, but are worth trying, especially if you can get | |
more medical help. | |
(See more about heart attacks.) | |
A medical device called a defibrillator gives an electric shock to | |
re-start the heart after a heart attack. Find out before emergencies | |
happen if there are defibrillators in your community and where they | |
are kept. They are sometimes found in ambulances, or in public | |
places like a police station or a large hotel. | |
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