Britain kisses goodbye to mouth to mouth

British Heart Foundation: "Ignore kiss of life"

The British Heart Foundation is urging people to forget "mouth-to-mouth" and to concentrate on chest compressions when performing CPR.

A new advertising campaign featuring Vinnie Jones is promoting the use of "hands only" resuscitation.

It is a response to polling by the BHF which found many people were worried about giving the kiss of life with over half those questioned admitting they were put off because they lacked knowledge.

Four in 10 people were worried about being sued if they did something wrong, even though the BHF argues no such case has ever succeeded in Britain

Ellen Mason, senior cardiac nurse from the BHF said "The kiss of life can be daunting for untrained bystanders who want to help when someone has collapsed with a cardiac arrest."

The advert has as its soundtrack Stayin' Alive by the Bee Gees which has been suggested as a tune for would be life savers to hum to get the tempo of chest compressions. Others have suggested this may lead to the compressions being too shallow.      

Vinnie Jones, now an actor after a successful football career, said "Hands only CPR should give have-a-go heroes the confidence to step in when somebody is in cardiac arrest."

Around thirty thousand people have a cardiac arrest each year in the UK and half of those are witnessed.  

"In most of these cases no one acts and people panic," said Ms Mason "If it was us, we would all want our loved ones and ourselves to be saved, wouldn't we?"

For more information please go to http://www.bhf.org.uk/heart-health/life-saving-skills/hands-only-cpr.aspx