Mindanaotoday.com | Camiguin amplifies 5C’s of CPR against cardiac arrest
By: Theresa Arlene Gambe
CAMIGUIN – The Local Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office (LDRRMO) promotes the Department of Health’s (DOH) “Hands-Only CPR” 5C’s method during the “Alerto” radio program, Feb. 14, to commemorate Philippine Heart Awareness Month and to equip regular citizens in relieving from sudden fatal emergencies such as cardiac arrest.
Cardiac arrest happens when the heart stops beating, resulting in asphyxiation or suffocation, so the victim would have trouble breathing.
The 5C’s is a five-step procedure on how a regular person can immediately respond to a victim whose heart stops beating and aid them through “checking for breathing, calling for 911, covering the victim’s mouth and nose with a cloth, compressing the heart area of the chest, and connecting to a defibrillator from a trained responder,” respectively.
“In the call portion, it should be indicated what happened. But before that, callers should introduce themselves and describe the scene of events, how many victims there are, and where the victims are. It’s important that it’s detailed so that we can properly and quickly respond without having to go back and forth,” said LDRRMO officer John Edrev Waminal.
LDRRMO Assistant Annie Cesar further emphasized in an example the importance of giving the appropriate details during the “call” step in order for the responders to efficiently bring the appropriate resources.
“If we know that there are five victims, we will be able to bring responders and resources for five people because if we end up bringing supplies for only one, then that would be a disaster for the responder,” said Cesar.
When the compression step begins, the responder will act as a manual heart by pushing on the chest rhythmically.
Once the heart returns to pumping oxygenated blood to the brain, the victim will be able to breathe again.
The provincial government is also planning to hold Basic Life Support training from April 19–28, 2023, in order to train and equip the public to respond to and manage health emergencies. (TAAG | PIA-10 | Camiguin)
###