There is no medical evidence to support the use of “Cough CPR”

Wednesday 02 May 2018

You may have noticed information doing the rounds on social media about so called “Cough CPR” which mistakenly claims that if you are alone and suffer a cardiac arrest, coughing vigorously can help save your life. This is not true.

There is no medical evidence to support the use of “Cough CPR” and in accordance with international guidelines and best practice, the Irish Heart Foundation does not endorse this practice.

The 2010 American Heart Association Guidelines for Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation and Emergency Cardiovascular Care state that “cough CPR” is not useful for unresponsive victims and should not be taught to lay rescuers.

According to Brigid Sinnott, Basic Life Support Coordinator with the Irish Heart Foundation, “the message we need to get to the public is very simple, in the event of either having chest pain or finding someone collapsed, the emergency services need to be called immediately on 999 or 112 . If the person is unresponsive or not breathing, then they need CPR.”

Approximately 5,000 people in Ireland every year from sudden cardiac arrest – that’s 13 lives lost every day. CPR can double if not triple a person’s chance of survival. We urgently need to raise over €300k to train people in CPR. The more people who know CPR, the more lives we can save.

CPR saves lives and so do volunteers please register here to volunteer to raise funds for our Happy Heart Appeal on May 11th. Funds raised will go towards the Irish Heart Foundation’s CPR training programme.