Empowered to Keep the Beat: Hands-Only CPR

Save More Lives Within Your Communities: Learn Hands-Only CPR

Hands-Only CPR (without mouth-to-mouth breaths) provided by a bystander is as effective as conventional CPR for cardiac arrest in teens and adults at home, at work or in public if done in the first few minutes after sudden cardiac arrest. About 90% of people who suffer out-of-hospital cardiac arrests die. CPR, if performed immediately, can double or triple a cardiac arrest victim's chance of survival.

See the Hands-Only CPR Fact Sheet (PDF)

Here are some startling facts:

• About 1 out of 10 people who suffer cardiac arrests out of the hospital survive.
• Cardiac arrest can happen to anyone at any time.
• Many people appear healthy, with no known heart disease or other risk factors.
• African Americans and Hispanics/Latinos are less likely to receive bystander CPR and survive hospital discharge.
• Both Mexican Americans and white women are less likely than men to arrive at the hospital within three hours after sudden cardiac arrest.

Visit heart.org/HandsOnlyCPR to watch the Hands-Only CPR instructional video and share it with the important people in your life.
  

English

• Presentation (PDF)
• Presentation with presenter notes (PDF)
• Lesson Plan (PDF)
• Resource List (PDF)

Español 

• Presentación (PDF)
• Presentación con notas del presentador (PDF)
• Plan de lecciones (PDF)
• Lista de recursos (PDF)

You can save a life.

The 2020 American Heart Association Guidelines for CPR and Emergency Cardiovascular Care emphasize quick action by bystanders to begin CPR and training for all.

Explore the new 2020 AHA Guidelines for CPR and ECC