Kiss of Death to the Kiss of Life
Once hailed as ‘the Kiss of Life’, mouth-to-mouth resuscitation has been the method of choice for maintaining cardiac arrest victims until the medics arrive with bottled oxygen and other techno-wonders that save lives. Introduced to the world by Dr Peter Safar in the 1950s, the mouth-to-mouth technique was combined with chest compression techniques in the 1960s to form the modern method of CPR (cardio-pulmonary resuscitation). Until now.
American Heart Association has announced that it no longer recommends mouth-to-mouth for CPR, but rather suggests that repeated rapid chest compressions (100 per minute) are equally effective. There goes the fantasies of many a young male who imagined encountering a Hollywood diva in the throes of a heart attack — just so they would have an excuse (and opportunity) to lip-lock them. Sorry guys. And remember, the chest compressions are at the center of the chest, watch those hands if you ever do witness a diva collapse.