CPR or cardiopulmonary resuscitation is great! To me it is like a miracle technique that can "revive the dead".

But CPR is even getting better, a new CPR - compressing the abdomen instead of the chest - is promising better results.

This new CPR method was developed by a biomedical engineer at Purdue University- promises to be more effective than standard CPR because it increases nourishing blood flow through the heart by 25 percent over the current method - called only rhythmic abdominal compression or OAC-CPR.

According to Leslie Geddes, Showalter Distinguished Professor Emeritus in Purdue's Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering:

"In other words, at 10 minutes, the resuscitation is absolutely ineffective. Any medical procedure that had that low a success rate would be abandoned right away. But the alternative is not very good, either: Don't do CPR and the person is going to die.

There are major problems with standard CPR. One is the risk of breaking ribs if you push too hard, but if you don't push hard you won't save the person. Another problem is the risk of transferring infection with mouth-to-mouth breathing.

The new CPR method eliminates both risks."

Findings will be reported in detail in a research paper appearing this month in the American Journal of Emergency medicine.

I wonder when this will be adopted by emergency medical personnels.

Find more details about this first alternative to CPR at Purdue University.

[In Photo: Leslie Geddes, the Showalter Distinguished Professor Emeritus in Purdue's Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering, demonstrates a new technique for performing cardiopulmonary resuscitation. The method promises to be more effective than standard CPR because it increases nourishing blood flow through the heart by 25 percent. Geddes has developed the new method, called "only rhythmic abdominal compression," or OAC-CPR, which works by pushing on the abdomen instead of the chest. Credit: Purdue News Service photo/ David Umberger]