I genuinely have a hard time believing that someone trained to do CPR would refuse to do so because touching the boob of a stranger is too scary.
At least in Germany every driver has to get certified once before they get their driving license. So not everybody who is licensed is a professional, rather the opposite here. Its everyday common folk.
I think I may be too autistic to fully understand this; even as everyday common folk, they’re more scared of touching a boob than letting someone die an entirely preventable death? That’s bananas.
Panic can turn off the rational part of someone’s brain. Plus freshly pulseless people don’t look all that different than they did a minute ago.
Add in some agonal breathing and some people don’t grasp how serious the situation is.
You’re error in logic is in thinking that it is a conscious decision between “not letting them die” and “not touching their boobs”. In reality those who are too scared to touch are those that don’t have a good analysis of the situation in the first place.
For those people it’s a “probably it’s not as bad as I think, because nobody else is doing anything either” thing. The problem is exactly that they don’t know how bad it really is. If they knew, most would not actively pet people die. It’s exactly the ambiguity and inability to correctly assess the situation that hurts the person who needs help.
My training…
Tap the shoulders…"Hey buddy, are you okay!!! - no response, order someone to call 911!, get IDE! proceede to CPR. Pump the chest then fill their lungs and do it again and again until paramedics arrive. If the IDE is available you turn it on and follow the instructions.
The instructions tell you to place one electrode on the side or back of the heart area and the other towards the front. Then you clear and allow it to discharge.
It’s super simple stuff but under pressure things can get messy. Just ignore the boob and compress their chest to save their life.
It feels absolutely absurd to have to address any prudish or hesitant (because of worry of sexual abuse accusations or otherwise) behavior to save the life of a person, just because they have breasts. That said, I get it and I’m also glad that if this was a problem before, that it’s getting corrected now. This is your sign to get CPR/AED certified now! Link for those in the USA: https://www.redcross.org/take-a-class/aed/aed-training/aed-certification
On the other hand, we once responded to a woman passed out in a car. A bystander was doing “movie CPR”: reaching through the window, one hand between her breasts, very lightly pushing.
She was alert and talking, so I start assessing her figuring this guy would get out of the way since she obviously doesn’t need CPR. About 30 seconds latet I had to tell the guy he could stop.
