Anchor: Medical experts in Korea are encouraging a new method to perform CPR. They say it's OK to skip mouth-to-mouth and focus solely on chest compression. The process is simpler but it may save more lives.
Our Park Jong-hong has this report.
 
Report: [Sound bite: paramedic CPR during an emergency]
“I have been giving CPR since the 28th minute.”
 [I’ll check the radiocardiogram.]
 "There’s no breathing. One, two, three!"
  
Cardiopulmonary resuscitation or CPR traditionally involves alternating chest compression and mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.

But the survival rate after CPR in South Korea stands at a mere four-point-eight percent, around half the level in the U.S. or Japan.

The average man or woman not trained to perform CPR often miss the critical timing for saving a life as they tend to give mouth-to-mouth resuscitation without fully opening the airway. In fact, surveys from overseas have found that the role of rescue breathing in CPR performed by a layperson is not guaranteed. 

A study shows 12-point-five percent of people who received only chest compression survived, while 11 percent of people who received chest compression and rescue breathing survived.

This has led the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Korea Association of Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation to create a simpler and more realistic CPR procedure.
  
[Sound bite: simulation of new CPR procedure]
"There’s no breathing. I’ll get started. One, two, three!"
 
To get the best results, CPR performers are advised to straighten their arms and apply body weight pressure to compress the center of the chest 100 to 120 times per minute.
 
But Dr. Kim Kun-bea and other experts in emergency medicine say mouth-to-mouth rescue breathing is necessary for people who have drowned or suffocated.
 
[Sound bite: Prof. Kim Kunbae Professor - Emergency Medicine , the National Health Insurance Service Ilsan Hospital}
"In the event of cardiac arrest due to respiratory failure (like suffocation), chest compression must be accompanied by rescue breathing."
 
He also advised against halting chest compression for more than ten seconds to prevent brain damage due to a lack of oxygen.

The CDC says doing the right chest compression until the paramedics arrive is more effective than mouth-to-mouth and can greatly help save lives.
Park Jong-hong KBS World Radio News