Bee Gees ‘Staying Alive’ Helps People Stay Alive

For years, we were told that resuscitating an individual through CPR meant performing a combination of chest compressions and mouth-to-mouth. The problem was that would-be-helpers who had no formal CPR training (and even the ones who did and had forgotten the technique) were afraid of administering CPR. It was too complicated to remember how many compressions to execute before administering breaths, the number of which was also too hard to remember.

Well, fear no more. A new guideline has made CPR much simpler. It has been discovered that compression-only CPR may work just as well as compression/breathing technique. → source

Dr. MIchael Sayre, an emergency medicine professor at Ohio State University who headed the committee that made the recommendation said it best:

“You only have to do two things. Call 911 and push hard and fast on the middle of the person’s chest”

The only other thing to remember is this. You should administer compressions at a rate of 100 per minute. Don’t bother getting your stop watch out, and don’t count. There’s an easier way.

Remember the Bee Gees’ Staying Alive song? It turns out that it has 103 beats per minute, which means it’s perfect for CPR. Just sing it to yourself as you’re doing chest compressions.

Saturday Night Fever and John Travolta save the day.