NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — Mental Health professionals encourage those who were in the room when CPR was given to seek help as they often struggle with mental health challenges from what is a traumatic experience.
The American Heart Association states that approximately 350,000 people in the U.S. experience an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest trauma every year and doing CPR gives that person a 10% higher chance of surviving.
"There's gonna be things that might occur, but I think that might occur whether you do something or not. At least you have the opportunity to make a difference," stated Ascension St. Thomas Emergency Medical Services Director Mike Carlton.
Carlton learned CPR in the 1970s and had to use the skill before he ever considered working in EMS.
"You get to make a difference. I mean, we know that when we come to work every day, we're gonna make a difference in somebody's lives," he said.
Even though he has performed CPR more times than he can count, he said those moments are forever ingrained in his memory.
"If you do CPR on somebody and you know there's you become personally attached to them with the family there," Carlton explained. " I think probably the reason it's so ingrained is not necessarily the person but the family who you responded [to]. And I remember the wife was like 'You can't leave me now.' And so it was fairly emotional circumstance."
Ascension Saint Thomas Behavioral Health Hospital Chief Medical Officer Dr. Joseph Sharpe said anyone whose been in the room where someone was given CPR, no matter the result, should talk to someone even if it's a friend or family member.
"In the aftermath, there's a lot going on, and I think the first and foremost is kind of shock, you know, and that really takes over in people's heads. It's disbelief, it's shock. It's fear. There's a lot of mixed emotions," explained Sharpe, "Some folks get kind of stuck or hung up and in that could be with any traumatic experience. And there are resources and specific types of therapies and treatment modalities just designed for that."
Sharpe said in extreme cases, symptoms can be flashbacks, nightmares, difficulty sleeping, fatigue, headaches, irritability and muscle tension.
"It is so hard to predict what people are going to do because no one like plans to see their coworker turn blue and to fall to the floor and with sweat all over their face. I mean, it's a little bit shocking and, you know, sometimes people just kick into automatic and so that's what I think education can do is to help that process to be more fluid," said Sharpe.
Both men emphasized the trauma will be worse if you are in the room and do not do something to help.
"Saying, 'I didn't do anything to help,' for me, would be more damaging to my psyche than, 'I tried, but didn't work,'" explained Carlton. "The person is that you're going to be working on this pulseless in five minutes, brain tissues going to die, hard tissues going to die. What are you going to do, to them if you don't do perfect CPR, I mean, you're down there. Put your hand in the middle of the chest, start pumping."
"Time is tissue. When the heart stops beating, tissue starts eventually will start dying after about five minutes, brain tissue and cardiac tissue," said Carlton. "When I say it's a life skill, it's a life skill. I mean, because if that's your child or if that's your spouse or your aunt or your uncle or whoever that's the wrong time to go ‘Yeah. Yeah, I didn't learn.’"
The American Heart Association recommends everyone get re-certified every two years because CPR practices change.
To find a CPR training in your area, look for ones in your ZIP code on the American Heart Association's website.
