Basic Life Support

Basic Life Support (BLS)

Basic Life Support is the combination of emergency procedures needed to ensure a person’s survival, including cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), control of bleeding, treatment of shock and poisoning, stabilization of injuries and/or wounds, and basic first aid. In this chapter, we will cover CPR, recovery position, and automated external defibrillator (AED).

CPR

Recovery Pose AED

Why Basic Life Support?

It is important to learn BLS because emergencies happen! There are a lot of things you can do with little or no equipment to deal with medical emergencies, and you could potentially save a life with these simple skills.

Average age 80

Witnessed 40%

CPRed 30%

Why learn Bystander CPR?

Because Bystander CPR is a simple and effective way to keep a person with sudden cardiac arrest alive. This is a series of actions to support the breathing and circulation of a person whose heart has stopped beating, and help maintain blood perfusion to the vital organs to a certain extent to buy time for more definitive treatment.

What is sudden cardiac arrest?

Sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) is when there is a sudden failure of the heart to contract effectively, so that the delivery of oxygen by blood to the body tissues, including the brain and the heart itself, is disrupted, or even stopped. This situation is very dangerous, and is one of the leading causes of death worldwide, especially in the elderly. The median age of SCA in Hong Kong is 80 years old. Two-thirds of the cases occur at home, and 40% occur witnessed. Yet, only about 30% of the elderly in Hong Kong get immediate CPR from a bystander. This is very low compared to other developed countries, and many more lives could potentially be saved if more people step out to carry out CPR on an elderly with SCA.