Learn it in 10 minutes · it doubles someone's chance to live
Push hard. Push fast.
Every year, hundreds of thousands of people collapse from cardiac arrest outside a hospital. Most of them die — not because CPR is hard, but because the people around them freeze. Untrained bystanders who act roughly double a victim's chance of survival. This page teaches you the one skill that matters, and lets you practice the rhythm.
Someone collapses. Do this.
Adult suddenly collapses, doesn't respond, isn't breathing normally. Four steps — nothing else matters:
1
Check response and breathing
Shake their shoulders firmly and shout their name. No response? Look at their chest. Occasional gasps, snorts, or gurgles are NOT breathing — this "agonal gasping" happens in about half of cardiac arrests and fools most bystanders. Not responding and not breathing normally means: act now.
2
Call 112 — on speaker
Call the emergency number (112 in Europe, 911 in North America) and put the phone on speaker next to you. The operator will talk you through everything. If other people are around, point at one person: "You — call 112. You — find an AED." Pointing works; asking the crowd doesn't.
3
Push hard and fast, center of the chest
Kneel beside them. Heel of one hand on the center of the breastbone, other hand on top, arms straight, shoulders above your hands. Push at least 5 cm deep, 100–120 times per minute — the beat of "Stayin' Alive". Let the chest come all the way back up between pushes. Don't stop, don't check, just push. Getting tired? Swap with someone every 2 minutes.
4
Use the AED the moment it arrives
An AED (defibrillator — the box with a heart-and-lightning logo on walls of shops, stations, offices) is built for people who've never touched one. Open it and it talks to you. Stick the pads where the pictures show, and it decides everything else. You cannot shock someone by mistake — it only fires when a shock will help. Keep pushing between its instructions.
That's the whole skill
No rescue breaths, no pulse checks, no counting rituals. For an adult who suddenly collapses, guidelines for untrained bystanders are exactly this: call, push, AED. You keep going until professionals take over, an AED tells you otherwise, or the person wakes up.
Practice the rhythm
The most common mistake is pushing too slowly and too softly. Get the tempo into your hands now — your body will remember it when your mind is panicking. Press start and push against a couch cushion in rhythm.
110 BPM
100–120 per minute. Songs in this tempo: "Stayin' Alive", "Dancing Queen", "Macarena". After 2 minutes you'll feel why rescuers swap.
The fears that kill
Bystanders don't fail because CPR is complicated. They fail because of four thoughts — all wrong:
"What if I break their ribs?"You might — it happens often in effective CPR, and it's fine. Ribs heal. Death doesn't. A person in cardiac arrest is clinically dead; your hands can only improve things.
"What if they didn't need it and I hurt them?"Someone who is responsive will react when you push — then you stop. No one who needed help was ever worse off because a bystander tried. Doing nothing is the only real mistake.
"What if I get sued?"Helping in good faith is legally protected across Europe, North America, and most of the world — in many countries, not helping is the offense. No court punishes honest rescue attempts.
"Someone more qualified will step in."Everyone in the crowd is thinking exactly that. It's called the bystander effect, and it's lethal. The most qualified person present is the one who moves.
Choking: the other 4 minutes
Someone clutches their throat at the dinner table. The test is one question: can they cough or make sound?
A
They can cough or speak
Their airway is only partly blocked. Encourage them to keep coughing — it's the most effective force there is. Don't slap their back yet, don't give them water. Stay with them and watch.
B
Silent, can't cough, turning grey or blue
Fully blocked. Lean them forward and give 5 sharp blows between the shoulder blades with the heel of your hand. Still stuck? Stand behind them, fist above the navel, other hand over it, and pull sharply inward and upward — 5 times (abdominal thrusts). Alternate 5 blows, 5 thrusts. Have someone call 112.
C
They go limp
Lower them to the floor and start chest compressions — the same push-hard-push-fast you just learned. Compressions can also dislodge the object. Keep going until help arrives.
Afterwards
Anyone who received abdominal thrusts should see a doctor the same day, even if they feel fine — the thrusts can cause internal bruising that needs a check.
Unconscious but breathing? Different plan.
Not every collapse is cardiac arrest. If they don't respond but are breathing normally — chest rising steadily, no gasping — you don't push. You protect the airway:
→
The recovery position
Roll them onto their side, top leg bent forward so they can't roll back, head tilted slightly back and facing a little downward so the tongue falls forward and anything in the mouth drains out — an unconscious person on their back can silently suffocate on their own tongue or vomit. Then call 112 and keep watching the breathing: if the gasping starts or the breathing stops, roll them onto their back and start compressions.
Same rule if they come back
If the person starts breathing normally during CPR — it happens — stop compressions, put them in the recovery position, and stay until the ambulance takes over. They can arrest again; you're not done watching.
Children and babies: what changes
Everything on this page is the adult technique, and doing the adult technique on a child still beats doing nothing. The main differences, in one breath:
Child (1 year to puberty)Usually arrests from lack of oxygen, not the heart. Compress with one hand, about a third of the chest deep, same 100–120 tempo. If you've ever learned rescue breaths, children are where they matter most.
Baby (under 1 year)Compress with two fingers on the breastbone, a third of the chest deep. Choking baby: never abdominal thrusts — lay them face-down along your forearm, 5 back blows between the shoulder blades, then flip and give 5 two-finger chest thrusts.
A children's first-aid course takes an afternoon and is the single best investment a parent or grandparent can make. This page can't replace it — go book one.
Do this today, while nobody needs you
Knowing the steps is half of it. The other half is thirty minutes of preparation that make you dramatically faster on the day:
- Find your three nearest AEDs right now. One near home, one near work, one at your gym or club — the wall box you've walked past a hundred times. In an arrest you have no time to search; knowing costs you nothing today.
- Practice the rhythm above until it feels automatic. Two minutes on a couch cushion, once. Muscle memory survives panic; facts often don't.
- Put your address on your phone's lock screen and set up its emergency info (medical ID). When someone calls 112 for you, the answers are right there.
- Show this page to your household tonight. The person most likely to do CPR on you lives with you. Their ten minutes of reading is your survival plan.
- Book a real course. Half a day with a mannequin and an instructor turns "I read about it once" into "I've done it." Red Cross and heart foundations run them everywhere, cheaply or free.
The drill: would you act right?
Ten split-second decisions. Pick what you'd actually do — the explanations are where the learning happens.
Your result
The fridge card
Print this. Stick it where the household will see it.
- Collapsed + not answering + not breathing normally = start. Gasping is not breathing.
- 112 on speaker. Point at one person: "You call. You get the AED."
- Center of chest, arms straight: push hard, 2× per second. Don't stop. Swap every 2 minutes.
- AED arrives → open it and obey the voice. It cannot shock the wrong person.
- Unconscious but breathing normally → on their side, head back. Watch the breathing until help comes.
- Choking and silent → 5 back blows, 5 abdominal thrusts, repeat. Goes limp → compressions.
- You cannot make it worse. The only mistake is standing still.