CPR on Trauma victim.. Blood on Face?

Question

Sorry for the graphic nature of this question guys. I happend upon a motorcycle accident scene the other day and the gentleman was unconscious and bleeding from the face. (heavily) His ariway was obstructed so we corrected that situation. I am cpr trained and I was praying that the gentleman would continue to breath. He stopped breathing for a few moments a couple of times. I am struggling with this situation because I don't know if I would have performed CPR with the blood. 1. Would you do CPR? 2. Is there anyway to protect yourself absent a cpr mask?

Answer 1

i am cpr certified also,  tough question  i would probably just do compresions until somone got there.  i don't know of any way to protect yourself without a mask.  

Answer 2

Do not perform CPR if there are concerns that the victim's blood can get into your mucous membranes (eyes, nose, mouth).  Your first responsibility is to yourself.  Our students who take CPR are taught this.

"Compression-Only CPR" has been in the media lately, and there are those who believe it can be as effective as traditional CPR.  You may want to read about it at

http://www.salem-news.com/articles/april...

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23884566

I am CPR trained also (I've been a healthcare teaching assistant for 20 years), and I would absolutely not perform CPR on a victim if there was possibility of bloodborne pathogens risk.  If you do not have a mask, do not risk your life.

Answer 3

No, one should not perform CPR ever without a pocket mask. Blood or not.

If you cannot perform the breathing part of CPR, chest compressions can still be done. 30, then check for pulse if still absent, 30 compressions again. Normally it is 15 and 2 breaths... but in the absence of giving breaths, that is when you do 30 compressions.

There is no way to protect yourself without a mask.

I hope you are not feeling guilt over this. You did help by addressing his airway and staying at the scene. That does matter. You have to protect yourself too.

Answer 4

Answer is for everyone.

If your ever in a situation where you need to do  CPR on someone and you don't have a face mask then just do the compressions. Latest research has found that just doing compressions is just as effective as doing the breathing as well. In my Ambulance service over the  oast few months there has been some talk about changing once again the CPR guidelines for first aiders to just compression for this reason. Don't know how accurate this is though. It's better to do something than nothing. Now with you though its a real tough one being a traumatic arrest and with blood around. If you put the person on there back to do CPR then you might compromise there airway blood  but if you don't then they could die. So If you were to do it with just compressions then there's really nothing wrong with that but if you did nothing then again there's nothing wrong with it as you can justify why you didn't want to do it.

Answer 5

obviously helping this man to breathe was what you were trained for, but the blood makes it very hard because you don't know what kind of diseases this man could of had. i would of tried to wipe off the blood with something and then do CPR. although, i don't think there is any other way to protect yourself in this case.