checking for breathing
Look, Listen, Feel - 10 seconds
Look: for chest rise and fall
Listen: for breath sounds with your ear over the casualties' mouth
Feel: for air movement on your face
Do this for 10 seconds to give enough time to confirm the casualty is not breathing. This can feel like a very long time when you think that they might not be!
Tip: Our normal respiratory rate is 12-20 breaths per minute. This means that we will take a breath every 3-5 seconds when breathing normally.
not breathing? - steps
Call for help (shout or call 999 and place on loud speaker so you can move to step 2)
Start CPR 30:2 (30 chest compressions to 2 inflation breaths)
Ask someone to fetch a defibrillator. When it arrives, turn it on and follow the instructions. If Step 3 is not possible, that's ok, just keep doing good CPR!
Continue until emergency services arrive. If someone else is present and you are both capable of good quality CPR, swap over every few minutes to save exhaustion, therefore maintaining quality of compressions. Minimise time off the chest to 10 seconds or less.