April 1, 2008 Ottawa - Recent studies illustrate the benefit of compression-only CPR. This technique involves pressing on the chest of a person in cardiac arrest without providing mouth-to-mouth ventilations. This technique has been shown to be of benefit in certain situations  e.g. a witnessed cardiac arrest in an out-of-hospital situation, particularly where the first aider is reluctant to provide rescue breathing.

The complete CPR technique, which includes both chest compressions and rescue breathing, is recommended for infants, children and in cases where the cardiac arrest was not witnessed or was due to special circumstances such as near-drowning. For those individuals confronted with a cardiac arrest who have not been trained or are reluctant to perform mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, compression-only CPR is recommended.

Please Note - St. John will not be changing its CPR training at this point and supports the official position of the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada -- that Canadians take the complete CPR training program to gain invaluable life-saving knowledge and skills.

For CPR classes click here.

For more information, please contact:

Les Johnson
Director-Client Services
St. John Ambulance
1900 City Park Dr.
Ottawa, Ont. K1J 1A3
Tel. 613-236-1283 ext. 261
Cel. 613-882-6507