BY TANG LENG ZE
Moving on to our penultimate Brown Bag Session for the semester, Kaixuan is back to raise awareness about CPR and AED. If you recall, Kaixuan (who was an Emergency Medical Technician in National Service) held the first Brown Bag Session, which was about First Aid, months back.
Starting with CPR, which stands for Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation, Kaixuan emphasised the importance of CPR in saving cardiac arrest victims. Did you know that COVID-19 has increased the incidence of cardiac arrests? COVID-19 has caused heart inflammation in youths and also affects the respiratory system due to excessive mucus production, both of which are risk factors for cardiac arrests.
How do we identify cardiac arrest victims? Kaixuan explained that cardiac arrest victims are people who collapse a few minutes before they are found, and have no pulse and no breathing. For those who are worried about getting sued by victims or their families for performing CPR, Kaixuan explained that despite the lack of the Good Samaritan Law in Singapore, there has been no lawsuit thus far. As long as CPR is performed in accordance with the procedure, we need not worry about any liability. Hence, Kaixuan’s advice was to get CPR training, as we would never know when we need to save a person’s life.
Moving on to the topic of AED, which stands for Automatic External Defibrillator, it is a device that functions to reset the rhythm of the heart to normal sinus rhythm by delivering a shock. Interestingly, Kaixuan said that TV scenes on defibrillation tend to be inaccurate, as it is meaningless to shock a flatline asystole rhythm (the constant beep sound kind of heart rate). AED is to be used in conjunction with CPR on cardiac arrest patients, and when they are practised in a timely manner, the chances of resuscitation rises from less than 1% to 30%.
Last but not least, we managed to borrow a CPR manikin and training AED kits from OHSE NTU, allowing Kaixuan to conduct hands-on training with the participants. Participants practised how to locate the correct position to perform CPR (2 fingers above the sternum notch), performing chest compressions at a rhythm of 100-120 bpm (apparently, singing songs like Stayin’ Alive while performing chest compressions help!) and how to properly paste the AED pads. Overall, the participants enjoyed the process.
As you can see, Kaixuan covered a lot of content in this 1-hour sharing (the full content can be found in the slides attached). However, a typical CPR+AED training and certification take at least half a day. Readers who are interested may take up formal training from recognised organisations. For those who are currently studying at NTU, they may also take up lessons from Red Cross Youth NTU Chapter or NTU LionHearters.
Check out the slides shared here.