Knowing CPR can save lives

RECENTLY, I saw a video of a badminton player collapsing during a match with his friends. From the video, which was sent to me via Whatsapp, I saw that he died on the spot. Viewing the video was not pleasant but what shocked me more was not the man’s death but the way his friends and the other players around him just stood by as he lay on the floor fighting for his life.

Some tried to prop him up, not realising that their dying friend needed cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) to keep him alive.

What is CPR? Who is eligible to perform CPR? Should it be taught in medical school only?

There is a need to assess the level of public awareness on basic life support (BLS), which includes recognition of sudden cardiac arrest, heart attack, stroke and foreign-body airway obstruction, cardiopulmonary resuscitation ( pic) and defibrillation with an automated external defibrillator (AED).

Education on CPR is very important in Western countries. According to the American Heart Association (AHA), CPR is a component of the “chain of survival”. This chain is a sequence of actions that help to give a person having cardiac arrest the greatest chance of survival.

About 92% of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest subjects lose their lives due to the unavailability of immediate CPR.

I believe it is not an offence to share medical knowledge when it comes to saving lives. As such, we need to get every school, college, university, sport centre, NGO, government office and so on to start an active programme to educate their students, staff and patrons on CPR so that they would be always ready to help when someone needs basic life support. In Bahasa Malaysia, we say “Sediakan payung sebelum hujan” (Have an umbrella ready before it rains).

DR PRAKASH VARATHARAJOO Sungai Buloh, Selangor