The world’s most famous life-saving rescue technique could be worse than death in many cases, according to a new report.
Administering CPR — or cardiopulmonary resuscitation — to a cardiac arrest sufferer might seem like a no-brainer. However, mouth-to-mouth resuscitation could paradoxically cause more harm than good, according to a disturbing new NPR investigation.
“The bad experiences far outnumber the good ones, unfortunately,” Holland Kaplan, a physician and bioethicist, told the outlet about the so-called dark side of CPR.
Not only is this revival method not as successful as portrayed on countless televised medical dramas — but it can leave many patients with lasting physical and cognitive impairments.
On classic TV shows such as “ER” and “Grey’s Anatomy,” CPR — compressing a patient’s chest to circulate blood during cardiac arrest — is oft-depicted as a fool-proof method of revival, on par with “True Love’s First Kiss” in “Snow White.”
In actuality, this so-called time-honored technique has long caused a host of complications, including “fractured or cracked ribs,” pulmonary hemorrhage, liver lacerations and broken sternums and most, frighteningly, brain damage, per a 1961 Johns Hopkins Study.
Another possible unintended consequence is a pulmonary embolism, which occurs when a clot breaks off and makes its way through the bloodstream before embedding in an “artery leading from your heart (pulmonary) or brain (cerebral).”
Most concerning, perhaps, is the neurological impact.
Permanent brain damage reportedly begins within four minutes of the heart stopping, so doctors often revive the blood-pumping muscle, only discover that the brain is dead.
Meanwhile, the constant stopping and starting of blood flow during CPR can also lead to brain swelling.
Approximately 30% of survivors of in-hospital cardiac arrest will experience severe neurological impairment while only 2% of survivors over 85 avoid traumatic brain damage,
This cardiovascular Catch-22 is the reason why many cardiac arrest patients are against receiving CPR altogether.
Up to 50% of survivors reportedly claim they wish they hadn’t been administered it despite living to tell the tale, according to a 2014 study.
In a divisive incident in 2013, a 87-year-old lady named Lorraine Bayless died after a nurse denied her CPR while she was suffering from cardiac arrest at a retirement home in Bakersfield.
While the case sparked national outrage, the family refused to press charges on the grounds that it was the woman’s “wish to die naturally and without any kind of life prolonging intervention.”