CPR Done Incorrectly Found as Harmful as No Help at All : Science File / An exploration of issues and trends affecting science, medicine and the environment
From Times staff and wire reports
Bystanders who attempted CPR on cardiac-arrest victims got it wrong more than half the time, reducing patients’ already slim chances of survival, according to the Journal of the American Medical Assn. Improperly administered cardiopulmonary resuscitation “does not seem to be any better than no CPR,” said Dr. John Gallagher of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City.
Gallagher looked at 2,071 cases of cardiac arrest in New York City over six months and found that 662 of the patients were given CPR by a bystander. In 357 cases the CPR was not done properly, he found, and the rate of survival was one-third that of people given proper CPR.
