By Jackie Seabolt
Enterprise Record

Davie County Emergency Medical Services is taking a new hands-only approach to the way CPR is performed on patients during 911 calls.
Cardiopulmonary resuscitation has been used to save the lives of countless cardiac patients. Traditionally, it was performed using a sequence of chest compressions coupled with mouth-to-mouth breathing.
But the American Heart Association has changed guidelines for CPR and is recommending mouth to mouth not be performed because it interrupts the compressions to the heart.
Davie EMS Medical Director Dr. Darrell Nelson says that the county will integrate this new guideline in the next few months to all 911 calls involving cardiac arrests by continuing uninterrupted chest compressions with no breaths for the first few minutes. “Studies show there is no difference in the outcome. During the first 10 to 15 minutes you have enough oxygen in the body to survive.”
Statistics since the 1980s have shown a seven percent survival rate of cardiac arrest patients who …