Methodist Healthcare - January 31, 2020

It only takes a couple minutes to learn hands-only CPR, and it is a skill that could save someone’s life.

It only takes a couple minutes to learn hands-only CPR, and it is a skill that could save someone’s life. According to the American Heart Association in one year alone 475,000 Americans will die from a cardiac arrest, and more than 350,000 cardiac arrests occur outside of a hospital. Visit Heart.org's CPR facts and stats page. Because so many cardiac events occur outside of a hospital, there has been a shift to training bystanders so they can quickly help when they see someone having a cardiac event.

There are two simple steps to hands-only CPR:

  1. Call 911
  2. Push hard and fast.

Call 911 and push hard and fast

It may be easy to remember the two steps of hands-only CPR, but it’s also very important to make sure you are pushing at a steady rate as well. The American Heart Association recommends a minimum of 100 – 120 beats per minute.

Most people don’t know off the top of their head what 100 beats per minute sounds like, but you might if you have a song to help keep rhythm in your head. There have been studies that reported playing or singing a song with at least 100 BPM helps first responders stay on rhythm while performing CPR. Typically “Stayin’ Alive” by the Bee Gees is given as the example of a song with the right tempo but there are a lot of other great hits.

How's your heart? Methodist Heart

Stream Our Spotify Playlist

In order to help you remember what 100-120 beats per minute sounds like, we created a Spotify playlist that will work both as a helpful tool and would be super fun to listen to. Now even having an annoying song like MMM-bop or Baby Shark stuck in your head could help you save a life.

Sign up for one of our free hands-only CPR events across San Antonio, and check out our website to learn more about heart health and to take our heart risk assessment.