BehindTheMedspeak: CPR–in–a–Box

"CPR Anytime For Family and Friends" is a $30 kit from the American Heart Association (AHA) that aims to transform anyone who can fog a mirror into a potential lifesaver.

You get:

• A mini–manikin to practice on

• An instructional booklet

• An instructional DVD

The idea is that one kit suffices to teach everyone in a group in about 20 minutes how to do what's necessary to keep a person alive until more skilled aid comes.

Schools are one place the kit could be big — traditionally they haven't taught CPR because they don't have teachers certified as instructors.

Currently the AHA trains 9 million people a year in CPR; with the new kit they hope to more than double that number.

To me by far the most important thing the AHA has done here is to concede that rescue breathing — exchanging saliva and mucus with strangers out on the street — needn't be part of effective CPR.

Rarely does rescue breathing help because it's almost impossible for a lay person to do it correctly.

Good chest compressions will do the job in most cases.

But that's much easier said than done: effective chest compressions cannot be performed by most people any longer than five minutes at a time because of the tremendous effort required.

You can buy a kit here or call 877-242-4277.

There's no reason this kit shouldn't be useful in anywhere on Earth: cardiac arrest knows no boundaries.

These kits should be free for the asking to any person on the planet.