It was like doing weird cardio, to a rhythm, while panicking that if your form is bad you will kill someone. Oh, and I stopped every couple of seconds to expell my entire breath into his mouth
FYI, in case it ever becomes relevant (hopefully not!), the standards for breath to compression ratios have changed. Last I heard about a decade ago, they had moved to 30:1 (compression:breath).
Turns out it's vastly more important to circulate blood than to give breaths, and additionally many people fail to deliver any breath, as it's trickier.
I appreciate that reminder. And for clearly pointing that out to future readers of this post.
For context, this was before the standards changed. I'm glad the standards reduced the amount of breathing (to make room for more heart pumping). Either way, it wouldn't have made a difference in my situation: the patient had a brain aneurysm with a "<1% chance of survival even it it happened in the ER"
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Also, for future readers:
The probability that an amateur using CPR saves someone's life is 1:10,000
For paramedics, it is 1:1,000
So if your person dies, go easy on yourself and get some therapy
I did CPR on an elderly man for almost 10 minutes when I was 22; I was completely exhausted afterward.