How resuscitation works

Resuscitation – how to do it

A person who is hardly breathing or has stopped breathing altogether needs your help immediately.

1. Check

Is the person responsive? – Speak to the person directly. Say “Hello, can you hear me?” and make physical contact (e.g. by shaking, administering a mild pain stimulus).

If the person doesn’t react and is hardly breathing, or has stopped breathing altogether:

2. Call

Immediately call the emergency number 112, which covers all of Europe.

Do not hang up until the operator has asked all the necessary questions.

3. Compress

Begin resuscitation immediately, do not waste any time.

Put one hand over the other and place the heels of your hands in the middle of the victim’s chest. The correct position is in line with the nipples. If possible, the clothing should be removed from the upper body.

Press down firmly on the chest at a speed of 100 times a minute, ideally to a depth of 5 cm. While compressing the victim’s chest, keep your arms extended to conserve energy.

Keep going until the emergency services take over. If there are several people around who can help, change over after no more than 3 minutes. Make sure that there are no breaks in the resuscitation procedure while changing over.

Anyone can save a life!