| Very interesting and thanks for posting this, though I can see some potential conflicts in a diving sense.
The simplifications are all very well 'on the numbers' given that the average lay person is most likely going to have to give BLS on a victim in the street in cardiac arrest.
The current BSAC (and EFR) protocol on distinguishing action required for drowning or injury (1 min CPR then call EMS) as opposed to suspected heart attack (call EMS then start CPR) would in my view be complicated by adopting the new Resus guidelines. Given that the step as to when you call EMS is, in a lot of diving scenarios, irrelevant (there's usually someone available to make the call while someone else starts CPR), the current sequence is then identical (2 rescue breaths followed by CPR at 15:2 ratio). However if the guidlines are adopted, potentially there is now a marked differece which can only add to the complication - ie:
Suspected cardiac arrest: no initial rescue breaths then the new 30:2 ratio with shorter lung ventilation,
vs.
Drowning/Injury: now 5 initial rescue breaths, followed by CPR (though the guidelines don't say whether this is to be at the previous 15:2 ratio and/or whether more emphasis be placed on effective ventilations (ie over 2 seconds to decrease lung resistance).
Any other thoughts welcome.
Joe |