Chapter 330: Chapter 329: On-site Teaching
Yan Feifan and Yu Suye rushed into private room 206 downstairs.
They discovered five young people in their twentiesâthree men and two womenâcowering in a corner of the room.
Another young man was lying on the floor under the round table.
Yan Feifan didnât know what to make of the scene.
They were all companions, drinking at the same table. When one of them was in trouble, the others just hid off to the side.
âDoing nothing? Just standing there and watching?â
After a personâs heart or breathing stops, they will pass out from cerebral hypoxia within five to eight seconds!
Within a minute, their pupils will dilate, and they will enter a state of clinical death.
After five to six minutes, the brain will suffer brain death due to prolonged oxygen deprivation, at which point there is basically no hope of recovery.
Therefore, the six minutes following cardiac or respiratory arrest are the critical window for saving a patient.
To be more precise, itâs actually three minutes.
Because after three minutes, the brain may suffer irreversible damage from ischemia and hypoxia.
For an ordinary person encountering a patient in cardiac or respiratory arrest, the most crucial thing to do is to race against time and perform CPR. This uses external force to maintain the patientâs blood and respiratory circulation until medical personnel arrive.
âThese people are in their twenties and have likely received higher education. Even if theyâve never learned CPR, they must have at least heard of it, right?â
âThey could have at least pulled out their phones, looked it up, and tried to learn on the spot, couldnât they?â
âBut the problem was, they did absolutely nothing!â
In this emergency, Yan Feifan didnât have time to blame anyone. He quickly cleared the chairs away from the man on the floor and performed a basic examination.
No pulse!
No breathing!
It was confirmed: cardiac arrest.
Having made his diagnosis, Yan Feifan was about to begin CPR.
When he pried the manâs mouth open, Yan Feifan was shocked to find it full of heaven-facing chili peppers.
Yan Feifan had personally experienced the spiciness of these peppers at the dinner table earlier.
Just a small bite had filled his entire mouth with a burning, painful heat.
This led Yan Feifan to suspect that the man had likely suffered stress-induced cardiac arrest from the overwhelming spiciness.
Yan Feifan didnât think it was cardiac arrest caused by asphyxiation from a blocked airway because a blocked trachea would typically trigger a violent coughing reflex.
If that were the case, the peppers would have been coughed out.
Furthermore, fainting from asphyxiation usually causes signs of severe hypoxia, like cyanotic patches on the face.
The man before him showed neither of these symptoms.
Yan Feifan scooped the peppers out of the manâs mouth to clear his airway, then began rescue breathing.
At the same time, Yu Suye moved to the manâs other side and began chest compressions.
After a few rescue breaths, Yan Feifan said to Yu Suye, who was doing the compressions, "Move aside. Iâm going to try a precordial thump."
A precordial thump is a hard blow to the patientâs precordial region, on the left side of the chest. Itâs similar to defibrillation, using the sudden shock from an external force to restart a stopped heart.
This method is only effective for cardiac arrest caused by certain conditions and isnât a guaranteed life-saving technique.
If this manâs heart had stopped due to stress from extreme spiciness, as Yan Feifan suspected, then a precordial thump had a high chance of restarting it.
In this situation, Yan Feifan believed any chance of success was worth a try!
Yu Suye moved out of the way. Yan Feifan raised his right fist high, gathered all his strength, aimed for the patientâs precordial region, and threw a punch!
He checked. The heartbeat had not returned.
Another punch. The heart still didnât restart...
Just as Yan Feifan raised his fist for a third and final attempt, he heard Yu Suyeâs voice.
"Iâll do the third one!"
Before her words even faded, Yan Feifan saw a small fist descend before his eyes, moving so fast it left a blur...
A muffled THUD echoed in Yan Feifanâs ears.
To Yan Feifanâs astonishment, he saw the manâs body actually bounce a few times on the floor.
His eyes widened. âHow much force was that?â
âIt was like being hit with a sledgehammer!â
Shaken, Yan Feifan didnât forget to check the manâs condition.
There was a heartbeat!
Heâd been saved.
The tension in Yan Feifanâs nerves finally eased. He turned to look at the three men and two women still cowering in the corner.
"Your friend has been revived. Heâs okay for now."
After updating them, Yan Feifan asked coldly, "What exactly happened here?"
A woman with a choppy, short haircut, who was somewhat attractive, timidly replied, "We were just joking around, making a bet to eat chili peppers."
"As he was eating, he clutched his chest and collapsed."
"It really has nothing to do with us..."
Yan Feifan snorted. "If something happens at a class reunion with drinking, everyone shares the responsibility."
"If he had actually died, you think youâd be blameless?"
He questioned them again, "CPR. Even if you donât know how to do it, you must have heard of it, right?"
"Why were you all just hiding in the corner, not making any attempt to help?"
Under Yan Feifanâs sharp gaze, all of them averted their eyes and lowered their heads.
The woman with short hair spoke up again. "Itâs not that we did nothing. We called 911."
Yan Feifan criticized, "Your friend was in cardiac arrest. By the time the ambulance gets here, it would have been too late."
The short-haired woman muttered defensively, "With the way things are in society these days, who would dare to step in and help?"
"What if you fail to save them and get blamed and sued for it?"
Hearing her explanation, Yan Feifan wanted to argue but suddenly felt powerless to do so.
Itâs easy to preach about helping others from a moral high ground, but when something actually goes wrong, you canât bear the consequences for them.
Yan Feifan sighed to himself and said in a low voice, "All of you, come here."
"Iâm going to teach you how to perform CPR right now."
"Even if not for others, do it so that if someone close to you ever ends up in a similar situation, you wonât be as helpless as you were today, just hiding in a corner."
At Yan Feifanâs instruction, the five of them came closer to listen as he explained how to perform CPR...
"First, check if the patient has truly stopped breathing and has no heartbeat."
"Once confirmed, first call for emergency services, or have someone else call, and then begin CPR yourself. This buys time for professional medical personnel to arrive."
Yan Feifan began the on-the-spot lesson, demonstrating as he spoke.
"First, check the patientâs mouth for any obstructions."
"If there are, turn the patientâs head to one side and clear any foreign objects from the mouth and airway."
"Next, lay the patient flat on a hard surface..."
"Kneel beside the patient, interlock your hands, and position your arms straight over the patientâs body."
"Pay close attention to the compression point..."
"The compression point is where the line connecting the nipples intersects with the sternum."
"Place the heel of one hand on the compression point. Place the heel of your other hand on top of the first, and interlock your fingers for the compressions."
"During this process, keep your arms straight and use your body weight to deliver vertical compressions to the sternum through your arms and hands."
"Doing it this way saves a lot of energy."
"The compression rate should be between 100 and 120 times per minute..."
"The compression depth should be between 5 and 6 centimeters, or about 2 to 2.4 inches..."
"After 30 chest compressions, begin rescue breathing."
"If you are not comfortable with the procedure for rescue breathing, you can skip that step and perform continuous chest compressions until medical personnel arrive."
Yan Feifan then began demonstrating the rescue breathing technique.
"Gently press back on the patientâs forehead and lift their chin up..."
"Pinch the patientâs nostrils shut with your hand and take a deep breath..."
"Cover the patientâs mouth with your own, forming a seal, and give a breath lasting at least one second..."