Identifying Cardiac Arrest Victims

Video Transcript

"Okay, how to identify cardiac arrest. As we discussed earlier, cardiac arrest is a loss of responsiveness, absence of breathing, and the absence of pulse. To do that, if you find a person laying on the ground or sitting in their chair, that appears to be asleep, see if they can wake up. You can do that by shaking them or shouting at them. If they do not respond, check to see if they're breathing, and look, listen, and feel is usually what's taught in CPR classes. Check for a pulse. You can check a pulse either on the radial pulse, or at your carotid. If you do not feel a pulse, if they're unresponsive and not breathing, then they are in cardiac arrest. When you have identified somebody that is in cardiac arrest, CPR needs to be started immediately. The basic chain of survival needs to be followed. You've already started the first two steps. First, you have early recognition. Second, you start early CPR. Next, you need to activate the 9-1-1 system and summon help, and then, advance life support treatment can be initiated on this patient."