Demonstration Speech
Let’s Save a Life
Specific Purpose: To inform my audience the steps and procedures on how to perform first aid and CPR.
Central Idea: First aid and CPR are instrumental in life-threatening emergencies. Bystanders and first responders are crucial to the emergency situation.
Method of Organization: Chronological
Introduction
No one ever hopes that they are around during an emergency situation. However, it happens. Anyone can learn CPR – and everyone should! Sadly, 70 percent of Americans may feel helpless to act during a cardiac emergency because they either do not know how to administer CPR or their training has significantly lapsed. This alarming statistic could hit close to home, because home is exactly where 88 percent of cardiac arrests occur. Put very simply: The life you save with CPR is mostly likely to be someone you love.
This is a very hard statistic to grasp. We all rely on paramedics, EMTs and hospitals to save lives. However, most emergencies happen in the community or, even harder to grasp, in our homes. More specifically, 4 out of 5 cardiac arrests occur outside of a hospital. An even bigger statistic that could hit home is 383,000 cardiac arrests occur annually.
A false assumption is that people go into cardiac arrest because of a heart attack. Most sudden cardiac arrests are due to abnormal impulses in the heart. These impulses can be corrected if caught fast enough. Failure to act quickly can lead to unnecessary death. Effective bystander CPR can double or triple a victim’s chance of survival, but only 32% of cardiac arrest victims get CPR from a bystander. Sadly, less than 8% of people who suffer cardiac arrest outside the hospital survive. I have witnessed one of these 8% miracles. I am a paramedic and responded to the scene of a “nonbreather.” This means someone is not breathing. Upon our arrival, I found a female patient laying on the ground unconscious and not breathing. However, her husband was performing CPR. We
Specific Purpose: To inform my audience the steps and procedures on how to perform first aid and CPR.
Central Idea: First aid and CPR are instrumental in life-threatening emergencies. Bystanders and first responders are crucial to the emergency situation.
Method of Organization: Chronological
Introduction
No one ever hopes that they are around during an emergency situation. However, it happens. Anyone can learn CPR – and everyone should! Sadly, 70 percent of Americans may feel helpless to act during a cardiac emergency because they either do not know how to administer CPR or their training has significantly lapsed. This alarming statistic could hit close to home, because home is exactly where 88 percent of cardiac arrests occur. Put very simply: The life you save with CPR is mostly likely to be someone you love.
This is a very hard statistic to grasp. We all rely on paramedics, EMTs and hospitals to save lives. However, most emergencies happen in the community or, even harder to grasp, in our homes. More specifically, 4 out of 5 cardiac arrests occur outside of a hospital. An even bigger statistic that could hit home is 383,000 cardiac arrests occur annually.
A false assumption is that people go into cardiac arrest because of a heart attack. Most sudden cardiac arrests are due to abnormal impulses in the heart. These impulses can be corrected if caught fast enough. Failure to act quickly can lead to unnecessary death. Effective bystander CPR can double or triple a victim’s chance of survival, but only 32% of cardiac arrest victims get CPR from a bystander. Sadly, less than 8% of people who suffer cardiac arrest outside the hospital survive. I have witnessed one of these 8% miracles. I am a paramedic and responded to the scene of a “nonbreather.” This means someone is not breathing. Upon our arrival, I found a female patient laying on the ground unconscious and not breathing. However, her husband was performing CPR. We
Cited: * "CPR Statistics." American heart association. June 2011. Accessed Feb 2013. www.heart.org * American Heart Association. Heartsaver First Aid CPR AED. United States: First American Heart Association Printing, March 2011. * “Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation.” Wikipedia. February 27, 2013. Accessed Feb 2013. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cardiopulmonary_resuscitation