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Hey teamliquid. I was just thinking about what in the world I'm the most scared of tonight. I thought about it for awhile and I just wanted to share it and get your thoughts.
My biggest fear in life at the point where I am right now is having to do CPR on a living human being.
Now I'm taking a year off of college because I don't feel ready for it and so I'm going to be working a lot during this time. Currently I'm working as a lifeguard at a couple of different pools. I've had a TON of training and I know I'm able to handle an emergency situation. However, one of my first lifeguarding instructors (about 3 years ago when I was doing my first lifeguarding training) told us how doing CPR on an actual person would be like.
If you don't know, while doing CPR on someone you actually have to break their ribs. It was described to me as a horrible crunching sound when you do CPR on a person. The thought of someones life hanging in the balance and all I can do is break their ribs and hope they hold on long enough for a defibrillator to come and hopefully bring them back is actually terrifying to me. CPR doesn't bring someone back (contrary to Hollywood's notion of it) it just keeps their blood flowing so hopefully you can bring them back.
Now that I'm going to be working basically full time as a lifeguard the thought of someone lying on the pool deck, not far away from dying just horrifies the shit out of me.
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I studied fitness awhile back and one of the units was learning CPR the teacher told us that the percent of saving someone using CPR was extremely low, you do CPR to keep them alive as long as you can until a professional can do whatever they do and even then they could have brain damage from lack of oxygen to their brain. I wasn’t told “Bro, you HAVE to break their ribs”. I was told “You have to push so hard that you could break the ribs”. I understand completely why you would be scared dude, but at the end of the day, it’s not your fault he died anyways. I might be a heartless dude but I mean come on, I would feel bad that I did all I could and that person died, but it’s not your fault whatever happened to them happened to them.
A chick that was in my class actually pretty much saved a dudes life. She controlled the situation and performed CPR until an ambulance came and he was revived. I’m not to sure about his health now, but she kept him alive. Do what you were taught and be confident man, that’s all I can say.
<3
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Canada188 Posts
LOL
You have nothing to worry about. You're most likely never going to have to perform CPR on someone.
And even if it does happen instinct will take over and you'll act down right heroic or some shit.
EDIT: Oh, yeah I've actually witnessed CPR given on a senior citizen. You're totally right about the ribs breaking... it was like kneading a bag of Lays.
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Chances of something like that happening are pretty slim. They would have to be drowning for a while.
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^ yep and also, the ribs don't ALWAYS break, it just can happen. Ive also done my lifeguard course..
Its a pretty laid back job, and reallly rare for something like that to happen.
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Yea guys I know the chances it'll happen. I've been lifeguarding for over 3 years now. it's just something that scares me about the job 
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I do not think it is very common to break someones ribs doing CPR. I read something online that says its like 30% chance and even then its most likely in the elderly. A lot of people at pools dont fit the elderly status. I would say you are not likely to run into a situation to do CPR in the first place, let alone break someones ribs from doing it. I would not let it put your life on hold. Best of luck good sir.
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That sounds terrifying actually. Breaking someones ribs? ew...
However, you have Teamliquid. We're here to support you  If something bad happens or you're feeling down... just blog about it again, hopefully we can keep you strong.
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Canada188 Posts
On May 08 2012 14:13 run.at.me wrote:
^ yep and also, the ribs don't ALWAYS break, it just can happen. Ive also done my lifeguard course..
Its a pretty laid back job, and reallly rare for something like that to happen.
No, this is wrong... they pretty much always break. If they don't break you're probably doing it wrong.
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I was expecting to open this up and see "PvP GSL finals"
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uhm don't worry, you don't perform CPR on living people but on dead people in the hopes to get them alive again? Oo
a defibrillator doesn't revive someone btw, that's a TV lie. frequently, people don't have their hearts stop but go crazy just jiggling around instead of normally pumping. The defibrillator is then used to flat out "kill" them, making the muscle stop jiggling (read up wikipedia for details). Getting the heart to beat again either happens on it's own afterwards or through CPR. the CPR you do on "dead" people is either to restart keep up blood flow while the heart itself isn't working properly. Only in the later case a defibrillator is used to stop that and then get them back to normal somehow.
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TIL CPR can break ribs. Just how likely I am to break ribs when performing it is still unclear.
Also you perform cpr regardless of whether or not there's a pulse? I thought you did the chest presses only when someone's pulse was missing.
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On May 08 2012 18:18 obesechicken13 wrote:
TIL CPR can break ribs. Just how likely I am to break ribs when performing it is still unclear.
Also you perform cpr regardless of whether or not there's a pulse? I thought you did the chest presses only when someone's pulse was missing.
No only when they don't have a pulse. The point of CPR is to keep the blood flowing.
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EPT
