First aid; The technique of word of mouth

Warning

These tips are general recommendations for an emergency. Not intended to replace professional classes in first aid and resuscitation.

The word of mouth technique is applied to adults and older children:

• Open the airway using head tilt-chin, described above.
  
  
• Cover your nose with your index finger and thumb of the hand placed on the forehead.
  
  
• Take a deep breath and applying the lips around the casualty, take the air heavy and slow, checking with the view that the person's chest rises, a sign that air has entered the lungs.
  
  
• Repeat this maneuver twice and then continue blowing air at a rate of 12 to 15 breaths per minute until help arrives or the person starts breathing again.
  
  

Checking the functioning of the heart

We may check the status and functioning of the heart by examining the arterial pulse. The pulse is checked in the neck, on either side of the Adam's apple, where they spend the arteries that carry blood to the head (carotid arteries). You must use the index and middle fingers of the hand (never the thumb, which note the pulse itself).

If there is no pulse, begin external cardiac massage, with which you can substitute part of the artificial heart function.

The heart is located in the center of the chest between the sternum and spine. Therefore, if we apply force to the sternum, the heart against the spine to contract and expel the blood that contains in its interior. When you stop pressing on the sternum the heart fill with blood again passively and so on.

The technique consists of:

• Put on your knees to one side of the patient, at the height of your shoulders.
  
  
• With the index and middle fingers find the bottom of the rib at its junction with the sternum.
  
  
• Following these two fingers are placed the heel of your other hand on the lower third of the sternum.
  
  
• Place the heel of your other hand on top, interlocking the fingers to prevent these touch the chest.
  
  
• Keep elbows straight and always support your body weight on your hands to make it easier to push for help from gravity.
  
  
• Squeeze hard and fast the sternum to get a vertical displacement of about 3.5 to 5 cm. Then relax the pressure and repeat again.
  
  
• It should get a rate of 60 to 80 compressions per minute in adults. It is so important to compress the heart is empty, how to decompress so you can fill with blood again.
  
  
• If cardiac arrest is meant a situation in which spontaneous respiration and circulation do not exist (the person is unresponsive, not breathing and no pulse), should initiate basic life support maneuvers in which they combine respiratory resuscitation techniques and external cardiac massage until help arrives or there is recovery of the patient.