Even doing away with the mouth-to-mouth “ick” factor of cardiopulmonary resuscitation isn’t enough to convince a significant proportion of Canadians to perform CPR on strangers, new research suggests. Most of those surveyed couldn’t identify a cardiac arrest. They were also overly optimistic about survival rates: half believed 50 per cent or more individuals will survive a cardiac arrest outside hospital. Overall, when the victim was a family member or friend, there were no significant differences in willingness to perform CPR. When the victim was a stranger, a greater proportion (55 per cent) was prepared to perform hands-only CPR versus mouth-to-mouth (39 per cent).

Source: National Post August 22, 2016 14:03 UTC