Mouth to mouth without barrier?

[Southern Magnolia]

I will be beginning a BSN program in the fall. In preparation for school I was required to take CPR training. During the course of training the instructor mentioned the new compression first cpr (ccr) and stressed that no one is required to do mouth to mouth if they don't have a barrier (mask or other device) and that he wouldn' t. I understand that the point is to at least buy the individual a couple of more minutes - that at least getting compressions going is better than people not getting involved for fear of having to do mouth to mouth.

The instructor asked the class (13 people) to raise our hand if we would be willing to do mouth to mouth on an unknown person if a barrier device is not available. When the proposed patient was a 5 year old half the class said they would be willing. When the patient was a 55 year old I was the only one that stated I would be willing to do mouth to mouth without a barrier.

I understand the risks of disease transmission. I simply don't know that I could live myself if the person died (or worse) and I had chosen to do compressions only.

So my question to others is . . . am I alone?

[MimiK]

Survival rates for adult cardiac arrest without a defibrillator are indeed extremely low unless it is caused by a correctable respiratory component. But, with the typical bad heart scenario the defib window is basically 10 minutes. This is because the chance of survival decreases by 10% for each minute without defib. So the AHA would prefer you shoot for the middle of the window and defib within 5 minutes, which gives you a 50/50 chance of getting them back. Recent studies have shown that compressions and defib are more important that ventilations, so don't sweat the mouth-to-mouth. You should always use a barrier/mask/tube. I ran a Public Access Defib (PAD) program and wrote a white paper for Fire Engineering Magazine.