CPR Question: Rescue Breaths

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This is something that I have wondered about for a while. With CPR, what is the point of the rescue breaths? It doesn't make sense to me. The patient is not getting oxygen, they are getting CO2. So why rescue breaths? I understand in a hospital where the patient can be bagged with 100% oxygen, but on the field, why breath CO2 into their lungs? And many times the air goes into the stomach, not the lungs.

I'm a student, and would like to know the reasoning behind this. It's been something I've wondered about since my first CPR class years and years ago.

In a nearby county the EMS is part of a trial, they do several minutes of chest compressions before they add oxygen. Apparently this has lead to great outcomes in a nation wide trial. I suspect the next "Friends and Family" cpr update will totally get rid of the rescue breathing for adults.

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I just had CPR training yesterday. One of the instructors said that in 2010 the guidelines were going to change to give compressions for a full 5 minutes before giving any breaths. That must be the outcome of the nation wide trial queenjean mentioned.

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what always bugged me is every time you take CPR, something changes. ratio of compressions to breaths... what age to do 2 person vs 1 person, to start right off the bat, or run to get help first...etc. I always figured if CPR stayed the same every year, the CPR teachers would be out of a job!

I'd like to think that it has more to do with evidence based practice than economics...but you never know.

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if patient is lying on back doing a heimleich, a thrust beneath the ribcage will push out the air from the lungs and then the fresh air will rush in to take its place

you need to keep that blood flowing thru out the body to make sure that the important organs keep oxygenated

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