FAQ

In the UK, CPR training is available through several organisations:

St John Ambulance (sja.org.uk) — offers face-to-face courses, online learning, and free resources including video guides.

British Red Cross (redcross.org.uk) — provides face-to-face and blended learning CPR courses.

St Andrew’s First Aid (firstaid.org.uk) — based in Scotland, provides first aid and CPR training.

NHS and ambulance services — many ambulance trusts offer free community CPR training. Contact your local ambulance service to find out what is available in your area.

Resuscitation Council UK (resus.org.uk) — provides guidance on CPR training standards and a directory of recognised training providers.

Free online resources — the British Heart Foundation’s Heartstart programme and Resuscitation Council UK both offer free instructional videos and guides. These are not a substitute for hands-on practice but are a useful introduction.

You do not need formal training to act in a cardiac arrest emergency — calling 999 and following the dispatcher’s instructions is sufficient. However, even a short training course significantly increases confidence and effectiveness.

If the person starts to show signs of life during CPR \u2014 normal breathing, coughing, purposeful movement, or opening their eyes \u2014 stop CPR and assess them.

If they are breathing normally, place them in the recovery position: roll them onto their side, tilt the head back to keep the airway open, and bend the top knee forward to stabilise them. Stay with them and monitor their breathing until the ambulance arrives.

Do not leave them unattended. If they stop breathing again, restart CPR immediately.

If they are not breathing normally despite showing some movement, continue CPR.

Tell the 999 dispatcher what has changed \u2014 they will advise you on what to do next.

Using an AED is straightforward. The device is designed for bystanders with no medical training and gives clear spoken and visual instructions at every step.

1. Switch the AED on. Most devices power on when you open the lid or press a button.

2. Follow the spoken instructions. The AED will tell you exactly what to do.

3. Attach the pads. Remove or cut through clothing to expose the bare chest. Peel the pads from their backing and attach them in the positions shown in the pictures on the pads themselves \u2014 one below the right collarbone, one on the left side below the armpit.

4. Let the AED analyse the heart rhythm. Stay still and make sure no one is touching the person while the AED analyses. It will tell you not to touch.

5. Deliver a shock if advised. If a shock is needed, the AED will charge and tell you to press the shock button (or, on fully automatic devices, will deliver the shock itself). Make sure no one is touching the person before pressing the button.

6. Resume CPR immediately. As soon as the shock is delivered, restart chest compressions. The AED will prompt you to continue CPR and will analyse the rhythm again after two minutes.

If the AED advises no shock is needed, continue CPR. The AED will reassess regularly and advise if a shock becomes appropriate.

You cannot accidentally shock someone who does not need it \u2014 the AED will only allow a shock if the rhythm requires it.

Continue CPR without stopping until one of the following happens:

A defibrillator (AED) arrives and is ready to use \u2014 follow the AED’s instructions, which will tell you when to stop compressions for a shock and when to resume.

The ambulance crew arrives and takes over \u2014 tell them how long you have been doing CPR and whether the AED has been used.

The person starts showing clear signs of life \u2014 normal breathing, coughing, or purposeful movement. If this happens, stop CPR, place them in the recovery position if they are breathing, and stay with them until the ambulance arrives.

You are physically unable to continue \u2014 if there is anyone else present, ask them to take over. Even brief pauses in compressions reduce the chance of survival, so try to swap with as little interruption as possible.

Do not give up before the ambulance arrives unless you are physically unable to continue. People have survived after prolonged CPR. The 999 dispatcher will stay on the line with you and can advise.

Push down firmly to a depth of 5\u20136cm \u2014 roughly a third of the depth of the chest. This sounds deep but is necessary to actually compress the heart and pump blood. Light or shallow compressions do not move enough blood to be effective.

Allow the chest to fully recoil (rise back up) between each compression. Leaning on the chest prevents the heart from refilling between compressions.

If you are worried about causing injury, it is worth knowing that rib fractures do sometimes occur during effective CPR \u2014 particularly in older adults. A broken rib is a treatable injury. Cardiac arrest without CPR is not survivable. Effective CPR is always worth any risk of minor injury.

You do not need to give rescue breaths. Hands-only CPR \u2014 continuous chest compressions without rescue breaths \u2014 is recommended by Resuscitation Council UK for bystanders who are untrained, unwilling to give rescue breaths, or unable to do so.

In the first few minutes after a cardiac arrest, the blood still contains enough oxygen to supply the brain and heart if compressions are delivered promptly and continuously. Stopping to give rescue breaths interrupts blood flow and is less important than maintaining continuous, high-quality compressions.

If you have been trained in CPR and are confident giving rescue breaths, a ratio of 30 compressions to 2 rescue breaths is recommended. But if you are not confident with rescue breaths, do not let that stop you from doing compressions \u2014 hands-only CPR is highly effective and far better than doing nothing.

The only situation where rescue breaths are considered more important is cardiac arrest in children, where the arrest is more likely to be caused by a breathing problem. In this case, if you can, five initial rescue breaths followed by 30:2 CPR is recommended \u2014 though again, compressions alone are better than nothing.

Yes. When you call 999 about a cardiac arrest, the emergency dispatcher can guide you through CPR step by step over the phone \u2014 even if you have never done it before and feel completely unsure. This is called dispatcher-assisted CPR or telephone CPR.

The dispatcher will ask you a few quick questions to confirm the person is in cardiac arrest, then give you clear, calm instructions on where to place your hands and how fast to compress. You do not need to remember anything in advance \u2014 just call 999 and follow what you are told.

Telephone CPR has been shown to increase bystander CPR rates and improve survival. Do not hesitate to call because you are worried about doing it wrong. The dispatcher is there to help you.

If someone else is with you, one person can stay on the phone with the dispatcher while the other does the compressions.

A person is likely to be in cardiac arrest if they are unresponsive and not breathing normally. The key signs are:

Unresponsive: they do not react when you tap their shoulders and call to them.

Not breathing normally: they are making no breathing movements, or they are making occasional gasping or snorting sounds. These gasps \u2014 known as agonal breathing \u2014 are a sign of cardiac arrest and should not be mistaken for normal breathing.

You should not spend more than 10 seconds checking for breathing. If you are not sure whether someone is breathing normally, treat them as if they are in cardiac arrest \u2014 call 999 and start CPR immediately.

You do not need to check for a pulse. Unless you are a trained healthcare professional, pulse checks are unreliable and take too long. If someone is unresponsive and not breathing normally, start CPR. You cannot make the situation worse by acting.

If you find someone who has collapsed and is unresponsive, follow these steps:

1. Check for danger. Make sure it is safe to approach.

2. Check for a response. Tap their shoulders and shout "Are you alright?"

3. Call for help. Shout for someone nearby to help you.

4. Open the airway. Tilt the head back gently and lift the chin.

5. Check for normal breathing. Look, listen, and feel for no more than 10 seconds. Occasional gasps are not normal breathing.

6. Call 999 immediately \u2014 or ask someone else to call while you start CPR. Tell the dispatcher the person is not breathing. They will guide you through CPR.

7. Send someone for the nearest AED. Ask a bystander to find one \u2014 the 999 dispatcher can give the location of the nearest registered device.

8. Start CPR. Place both hands on the centre of the chest and push down hard and fast \u2014 5\u20136cm deep at 100\u2013120 compressions per minute. Do not stop until the ambulance arrives or an AED is ready.

9. Use the AED as soon as it arrives. Switch it on and follow the spoken instructions.

If there are other people with you, one person should do CPR while another calls 999 and a third goes for the AED. Do not leave the person alone if you can help it.

Yes, and more profoundly than many people expect. Performing CPR on someone you love is one of the most distressing experiences a person can face. You were trying to keep someone alive — possibly not knowing whether your efforts were working, possibly believing at some point that you were losing them. That is a deeply traumatic experience, regardless of the outcome.

Co-survivors who performed CPR commonly report intrusive thoughts and flashbacks replaying the moment of collapse or the resuscitation itself, guilt about whether they started quickly enough or performed it correctly, hypervigilance about the survivor’s health, fear of being left alone with the survivor, and difficulty sleeping.

It is important to know that guilt about CPR performance is extremely common and almost never warranted. Even trained paramedics do not perform CPR perfectly under stress. Imperfect CPR is far better than no CPR, and the fact that you acted almost certainly made a difference.

If you are struggling with distressing thoughts, difficulty sleeping, anxiety, or low mood following the experience, please talk to your GP. Effective treatments are available, including trauma-focused CBT and EMDR. You can also contact Sudden Cardiac Arrest UK for peer support from others who have been through similar experiences.

Unfortunately, because of other underlying medical or heart problems, a victim of SCA who is in VF may not survive even if defibrillation is done promptly and correctly.

If bystanders who witness a cardiac arrest perform CPR, sufficient blood containing oxygen will reach the brain, heart and other organs to keep the person alive for several minutes. CPR by itself will not restart the heart, but it ‘buys time’ for the emergency medical services to reach the scene. Effective CPR more than doubles the chance of someone surviving a cardiac arrest.

No. In the UK, it is very unlikely that someone who acted in good faith when trying to help a person in cardiac arrest would face any legal liability. No action has ever been successfully brought against a bystander who performed CPR in the UK. The courts look favourably on those who go to the assistance of others in an emergency, and performing CPR on someone in cardiac arrest cannot make their situation worse. If you are concerned, the important thing is simply to act — calling 999, starting CPR, and using a defibrillator if one is available. For specific legal questions, the Resuscitation Council UK provides further guidance.

CPR stands for cardiopulmonary resuscitation. It is an emergency procedure used when someone’s heart has stopped beating, to keep oxygenated blood circulating to the brain and vital organs until the heart can be restarted — either by a defibrillator or by the heart resuming on its own.

CPR combines two elements: chest compressions, which manually pump the heart, and rescue breaths, which deliver oxygen to the lungs. For bystanders without training, hands-only CPR — chest compressions alone — is recommended by Resuscitation Council UK and is just as effective for the first few minutes after a cardiac arrest.

To perform hands-only CPR:

1. Call 999 immediately. The dispatcher will guide you through CPR if you are unsure.
2. Place the heel of one hand on the centre of the person’s chest (on the lower half of the breastbone). Place your other hand on top and interlock your fingers.
3. Press down hard and fast — aim for a depth of 5–6cm and a rate of 100–120 compressions per minute. The Resuscitation Council UK suggests the rhythm of the song Stayin’ Alive as a guide to rate.
4. Keep going without stopping until the ambulance arrives or an AED is ready to use.

Even imperfect CPR is far better than no CPR at all.