It might seem slightly ironic, but instead of giving mouth to mouth to someone just pump their chest to the beat of the Bee Gee’s disco classic ‘Stayin Alive’.
That’s the recommendations from the British Heart Foundation (BHF), which is launching a new TV campaign featuring the rubbish footballer and even worse actor Vinnie Jones.
The advice comes as the BHF reports that people who are first on the scene of an emergency are often reluctant to preform mouth to mouth because they’re worried that they’ll do something wrong.
Research carried out by health professionals has shown that compressing a persons chest at around 110 to 120 beats per minute (around the same tempo as ‘Stayin Alive’) is more effective than trying to preform mouth to mouth without the proper technique.
Another recommendation is to beat the chest to the rhythm of ‘Nellie the Elephant’. We’ll be sticking to ‘Stayin Alive’. Imagine the embarrassment of reviving a hot blonde and she looks up to you singing Nellie the Elephant. All your hard work would be wasted.
Speaking to the Irish Independent, Dr Brian Maurer, a leading consultant cardiologist at Dublin’s Blackrock Clinic, said, “I think naming that song is a very good idea. That encapsulates the kind of rhythm you need in order to maintain close chest compression.
“The object of close chest compression is to maintain an output of blood from the heart, ” he said.
For more on CPR check out the Irish Heart Foundation’s website.
