Thread: First Aid Training and Article

Part of the issue with the cpr and breaths thing was that exhaled air from a hard working and panicky/shocked first aider is usually very deficient in oxygen, and apparently studies have shown that you get more benefit from continuously moving the blood in the person receiving first aid than stopping and trying to top them up with exhaled air in that deficient of oxygen situation. Better is using a bag mask without supplementary oxygen i.e. fresh air, best is a bag mask with oxygen but either way circulating the person's blood is the objective.

Safety for the first aider is the other concern, if the person receiving CPR has taken or been exposed to something or has a contagious illness/virus/whatever you can end up with a multiple casualty event which is again less than ideal. It's different if it's a family member or someone close to you and you know their situation intimately but for a stranger I would 99.9% of the time not feel safe to do direct breathing in a CPR situation. It's a bloody pain - literally - having to do CPR on a callout as someone noted it's usually for a LONG period of time while you wait for ambo's and critical care to arrive all the time trying to keep family from completely melting down, not my favourite jobs.