Immediately begin Basic Life Support (BLS) during CPA.

One cycle of BLS is 2 minutes of sustained compression and ventilation (simultaneously if two rescuers are present). If only one rescuer, a compression to ventilation ratio of 30:2 is recommended.

CHEST COMPRESSIONS

Body position: lateral recumbency on either side (Figure 1 above) with rescuer adjacent to the MWD’s back.

Hand position: at the widest point of the chest (thoracic pump theory). Only in very lean and narrow chested MWDs can the hands be positioned directly over the heart at the point of the flexed elbow on the body wall (cardiac pump theory).

Rate: 100 – 120 compressions per minute.

Depth: 1/3 to ½ the width of the chest. ALWAYS allow for complete elastic recoil of the chest wall.