First time doing CPR

[bear14]

I'm sure this has been asked before but I'll ask again. Let me start this off by giving a brief history of mine and my husbands night. We were at a wake and a half an hour before we got there one of the people paying their respects collapsed and had a MI right in front of everyone. Paramedics were called and he was taken to a hospital. By the time we got there it was done and over with. However, I kept thinking later that night, how would I have handled it? I am starting my second year of nursing school in January and I just kept thinking would I have frozen, gone on auto pilot and jumped in, would I have remembered all the steps? So my question is, has anyone had to do CPR outside of work or school and how did you handle it?

[ChaseZ]

It is normal for a person to freeze or feel overwhelmed the first time they do CPR outside of the hospital. If someone collapses in front of you then check a pulse, tell someone to call 911, tell someone else to look around for an AED, and then begin CPR. It helps if you tell someone specifically to call 911 instead of just shouting "someone call", point someone out and be direct about it. Do hands only CPR until EMS arrives or someone brings an AED. Open the airway with a quick head tilt chin lift if you want but don't bother with rescue breaths. If there are a lot of people around maybe ask if anyone else knows CPR to relieve you when you get exhausted. My first time doing CPR outside the hospital I checked the pulse way too many times since I didn't want to believe the guy was actually coding but after that initial few seconds of shock everything fell into place.

[nurseprnRN, BSN, RN]

I have. You just do it. If you do it to the standard you were taught, there is no problem. Do that and keep it up until you are relieved by someone more competent is the Good Samaritan standard.

I had a coworker once who was always having people drop in front of her right and left-- in church, at the movies, at the beach, in the mall... The EMS got to know her well.She used to say she'd better stay home so fewer people would have sudden cardiac death in our town.