FIRST AID MANUAL

20. CHEST COMPRESSION HOWTO

CHEST COMPRESSIONS
1) Place the victim on the back on a hard surface with head
lower than the chest
2) Raise the victims leg to above 30 degrees
3) Kneel by the side of the victim and remove the clothing on the chest
4) Touch the breastbone with a finger and move it down the breastbone until the end of
the bone is felt - this is called xiphisternum
5) Mark 2 finger breaths above the xiphisternum - this is the chest compression point
6) Keep the heel of 1 hand on the chest compression point so that fingers lie along the
breastbone
7) Keep the heel of the other hand on the hand already on the breastbone - again
fingers along the breastbone
8) Fingers should not touch the chest nor the ribs
9) Keeping the elbows straight use the body weight to press the breastbone about 1
1/2-2 inches
10) Press the breastbone for about 1/2 a sec and take off pressure completely for about
1/2 a sec for the chest to recoil back to normal position
11) Achieve a compression rate of 100 per minute
12) How to achieve the necessary compression rate - do the chest
compression at a rate of 1 per second, counting seconds as
"one - one thousand", "two - one thousand", "three - one thousand",
"four - one thousand", "five - one thousand".
13) Some advise 80-100 compressions per minute with 2 lung inflations
in rapid succession for every 15 compressions