How Should Hospitals Restore Patients Experiencing Cardiac Arrest?

Hospitals generally adopt chest compression, artificial respiration, and defibrillation to restore cardiac function during cardiac arrest.

1. Chest Compression and Artificial Respiration: Before initiating cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), check for a carotid pulse by feeling the patient's neck. Simultaneously, tap the patient's shoulder and shout loudly near their ear to assess their level of consciousness. Perform chest compressions 30 times on the lower one-third of the sternum to establish artificial circulation. Then, clear the patient's respiratory tract, open the airway, and provide two breaths of artificial respiration. This sequence of 30 chest compressions followed by two breaths of artificial respiration is repeated in cycles, and the rescue effort generally lasts for 30 minutes.

2. Defibrillation: If the patient experiences ventricular fibrillation during cardiac arrest, chest compressions for CPR may be ineffective. In such cases, a more effective method is to administer defibrillation to the patient, which can directly stop ventricular fibrillation and restore sinus rhythm. Therefore, defibrillation is crucial for saving the patient's life during ventricular fibrillation. If the patient does not have ventricular fibrillation, defibrillation is not required.