For many years, people have been taught to use traditional methods of CPR when treating someone who has just suffered a heart attack. Traditional CPR, as most people are aware, involves intermittently switching between pumping on the victims chest and forcing air into their lungs. This is the method taught to society for decades. However, new research shows that compression CPR alone works better in cases of heart attack victims than the traditional cardiopulmonary resuscitation.

There were studies performed in the Dallas, Texas area. They found that those communities that taught compression CPR as a replacement to cardiopulmonary resuscitation in the case of heart attacks, saw up to a 400% increase in survival rate of victims. The normal survival rate for a heart attack victim is less than 5% when it occurs outside of the hospital. Many times, people are afraid to perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation, which involves mouth-to-mouth contact. There is always a possibility of catching an infectious disease when bodily fluids come in contact with each other.

The human body has an amazing ability to store oxygen in the blood for several minutes, without the need for additional air. This means that compression CPR is enough to get someone’s heart going again by itself. Once the heart starts beating, air intake automatically follows.

With this latest study, it should be interesting to see if more communities start teaching the “compression only” technique”.