Yesterday, a heartbreaking crowd crush incident had happened in Itaewon, South Korea that killed around 154 individuals.
According to reports, tens of thousands of people had gathered in a narrow street in Itaewon for the first Halloween celebration since restrictions due to the COVID-19 outbreak were lifted.
However, as there were many people dying, it was hard for other people to help as not many people know how to perform CPR.
“There were so many people that they needed normal people to do CPR. So everyone started jumping in and help. We had two friends who knew how to do CPR and they went out to help,”
—A victim told BBC.
So, we can see that CPR is very important to learn if you are ever in a situation like the Itaewon one. Therefore, this article is going to show you how to perform CPR.
How to perform CPR
Before we start, CPR should be initiated if an adult is unresponsive to queries or taps on the shoulder and is not breathing, even if it is merely through gasping.
Then, after making sure you’re in a secure location, you can begin performing basic CPR on the individual:
1. Call 999 or have someone else do it
2. Open the airway by laying the individual on their back.
3. Make sure that the person is alive and breathing.
4. Start performing CPR if the person is not breathing.
5. Try to do 30 compressions on the chest. Here’s how to do it:
Put one hand on top of the other and squeeze your hands together. With the heels of your hands and your elbows straight, push quickly and hard in the middle of the chest, just below the nipples.
Then, push down at least two inches. Compress the chest at least 100 times per minute. Allow the chest to fully expand in between compressions.
6. Perform two rescue breaths. The ways to do it:
Ensure that their mouth is clear, then slightly tilt their head back and elevate their chin. Constrict their nostrils, place your mouth over theirs, and blow to cause their chest to rise.
If the chest does not rise with the initial breath, the head should be repositioned. If the chest does not lift after a second breath, the individual may be choking.
7. Repeat until help arrives.
Sources: Medical News Today, BBC