If you see someone collapse on the street during your evening stroll, can you safely go to the rescue without risking a viral infection?
A new study revealed the risks of being a Good Samaritan and performing cardiopulmonary resuscitation, or CPR, on the dying man are very low in terms of contracting COVID-19.
According to Medpage Today, Seattle physicians said, even at the peak of COVID-19 in their city, the risk of contracting the disease by performing bystander CPR on strangers with out-of-hospital cardiac arrest, or OHCA, were too low to justify withholding help. Their study was published in the journal Circulation.
According to CNN, the researchers calculated, "given a 1% mortality for COVID-19, approximately one rescuer might die in 10,000 bystander CPR events."
CPR does not involve mouth-to-mouth resuscitation these days. According to CNN, the American Heart Association began promoting a "hands only" approach to CPR in recent years to address hesitation by rescuers who were leery of doing intimate mouth-to-mouth procedures. The American Red Cross has a quick refresher guide to performing hands-only CPR, although the organization prefers that people attend actual courses.
According to American Heart Association, experts said initiating CPR right away rather than waiting for medical personnel to arrive can double the chance of survival by 7% to 14%.
"There's likely little downside to starting CPR and a lot of upside in terms for survivability of the patient," said Dr. Dana Edelson, executive medical director for rescue care at the University of Chicago School of Medicine.
The take-home message is you should not let fear of infection prevent you from saving a life, experts said.