Hands-Only Resuscitation OK for Cardiac Arrest

If you see someone collapse in a public place or at home and you think it might be a heart attack, start pushing on his or her chest as hard as you can and as often as you can.

Those are the latest instructions from the American Heart Association, which asserts that hands-only cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) can be done in an emergency situation, even by people who have no training in the technique.

The statement, published in the April 29 issue of Circulation , does not rule out mouth-to-mouth breathing as part of CPR. "But we have learned enough to say that passers-by can save lives with chest compression alone," said Dr. Michael Sayre, an associate professor of emergency medicine at Ohio State University and chairman of the AHA committee that wrote the statement.

"We believe that approximately 250,000 Americans suffer cardiac arrest each year," Sayre said. ...