In case you missed this in the news and need to perform CPR, try humming the Bee Gees "Staying Alive" to get the proper beat. Of course, if you have an odd sense of humor, you can hum, "Another One Bites The Dust".
STAYIN' Alive may be the perfect song for helping people to do just that, according to research out of Chicago.
A published study reported people providing CPR while listening to the disco anthem completed close to the perfect number of heart compressions per minute.
To give a patient the best chance of surviving, CPR should be done with 100 compressions a minute, said study author Dr David Matlock, more than most people realise. With 103 beats per minute in Stayin' Alive, the Bee Gees wrote an excellent guide for providing CPR, Dr Matlock said.
The study involved doctors and students providing CPR while listening to MP3 players, and found those who were working to Stayin' Alive came closest to maintaining the ideal number of chest compressions.
It is the first study to back up what the American Heart Association has been saying for two years; that's how long they've recommended people learning CPR keep the catchy tune in mind while performing resuscitations.
One of the participants in the study, Dr Matthew Gilbert, 28, told the Associated Press he has since hummed the tune to himself while working on real patients. Dr Gilbert said he was surprised the song worked as well as it did.
"I was a little worried because I've been told that I have a complete lack of rhythm," he said. And while not a fan of the Bee Gees, Dr Gilbert told AP he knew a song by Queen with a similar number of beats.
"I heard a rumour that Another One Bites the Dust works also, but it didn't seem quite as appropriate," Dr Gilbert said.
5 comments:
Call me weird but the Bee Gees were not on my list of favorites in the seventies. Everybody else loved 'em but I just didn't care for their sound. Weird! I know!
Have you thanked you lately for all you've done for peace globes?
Hmmmm ... as someone who has to give CPR instruction over the phone, I think I can definitely go along with this and think they need to add "Stayin' Alive" to our EMD program so that we can help the caller even more! The second one might not be such a good idea!
Amanda couldn't stop laughing when I told her about this and played the music!
If I ever have to give CPR, I will now be confused as to what bloody song to hum :)
They may die before I remember :)
My problem is that I tend to focus on the lyrics instead of the beat. That was the toughest thing for me to overcome when I was taking my dance lessons. They finally had to put on music with no lyrics!
So I'm afraid that if I focus on the song Staying Alive while doing CPR, my compressions will be at the wrong beat because I'll be doing them to the lyrics!
How funny. I just passed CPR classes in school and loooove my Bee Gees :o)
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