June 3, 2025 • 14 mins
It’s CPR Awareness Week, and we’re setting the record straight. In this episode, Jimmy and Megan tackle the most common myths and misconceptions about CPR, from outdated advice still floating around the internet to reasons why people hesitate to jump in and help.
Do you have to check for a pulse? Nope.
Is mouth-to-mouth still required? Not necessarily.
Can you perform CPR without a certification? Absolutely, and the dispatcher on the phone can guide you step by step.
They also explain why it’s okay if you hear a rib crack (and why that’s not as scary as it sounds), how CPR changes for infants and kids, and what not to do if you think you're having a heart attack (note to self: do not throw self against a table).
They even dig into the uncomfortable truth about why fewer people are willing to perform CPR on women, and why it’s time we all get over it.
This episode we've got a lot for you! Practical tips, real talk, and a few weird tangents (like pancake-flipping babies and bad advice from the internet) that will probably make you laugh.
We're even talking about that infamous CPR training scene from The Office — the one with Bee Gees music, organ harvesting jokes, and some seriously bad safety moves. Jimmy and Megan explain what that scene got wrong (hint: almost everything), but also how pop culture moments like this can still spark curiosity about real-life emergency response.
Whether you’re CPR-certified, or not, we hope this episode inspires you to learn more and feel more confident if or when you need to action and lend a helping hand or two.
Life Safety Associates specializes in emergency response training for corporate ERT Teams. We help businesses create competent and confident first responders who are ready to handle unexpected emergencies. For more information you find us @lifesafetyassoc or email@lifesafety.com.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Megan (00:00):
What's happening?
Jimmy (00:01):
It's another Life and Safety Podcast with Jimmy and
your girl, megs.
Hello, today we're going totalk about CPR, kicking off CPR
Awareness Month.
Is it a month or a week?
Megan (00:12):
I think it might be a week.
Jimmy (00:13):
It's a week.
Anyway.
Cpr is a good thing to be awareof, hey yeah, but I feel
strongly about it.
Megan (00:18):
I think it deserves a month.
Jimmy (00:21):
I think it deserves a year.
Megan (00:22):
I agree.
Jimmy (00:23):
So no, I don't do it like that, but we should definitely
talk about it, take it seriously, and we're going to talk about
some misconceptions of CPR.
First and foremost, remembercalling 911 and acting just like
(00:46):
calling 911 is helpful.
Megan (00:48):
Yeah.
Jimmy (00:49):
If you call 911 and you decide to do chest compressions
only, which is totally legal,awesome, awesome.
Megan (01:00):
Should you take a?
Jimmy (01:01):
class 1,000%?
Should you take a class 1,000%?
Should you take a class from us?
1 billion%?
But you definitely should atleast try to do CPR.
So let's, talk about what aresome of the criteria to do CPR.
All right, because one of themisconceptions we kind of read
(01:21):
on the interwebs before we gothere was you have to check pulse
.
So only if you are a paidprofessional you have to take a
pulse before you start CPR.
For non-professionals it is theperson unconscious,
unresponsive and not breathing.
If they fit any of those threecriteria, we start CPR.
(01:43):
Not any, all of them, all ofthem.
Not any of those three criteriawe start cpr, not any, all of
them, all of them.
Not any of them, all of themyeah thank you um now that being
said, we place our hand on thecenter of the chest with your
fingers pointing away from youcenter of the chest being at the
nipple line and we press hardand fast yep ide ally we want to
(02:07):
shoot at 100 to 112 beats aminute.
Um another little bites.
The dust by queen is a goodsong to be too.
Or if you're a little shiny,happier person staying alive.
Um, I kid, I do the Bee Gees.
Do the Bee Gees Now you said, Istarted doing compressions.
(02:35):
What happens if you break a ribMegs?
Megan (02:38):
Then you keep going.
Jimmy (02:39):
Yes, if you do put your hands correctly right in the
center of the chest, the nippleline you press down, you're
going to hear crunching andsnapping noises.
That's not necessarily bone.
That's usually cartilage thatgrips yeah, cartilage is the um.
Megan (02:57):
When you're pressing the center of the chest, you have
the sternum, which is a littlefootball shaped piece of bone in
the center of your chest, andthen that connects to your ribs
with cartilage, which is thestuff your nose and your ears
are made out of, and so whenyou're doing compressions you're
usually pressing on the sternumand the cartilage, so the
sternum sort of disconnects fromthe ribcage.
Jimmy (03:17):
Yes, so could you bounce and get tired and start moving
towards those rib tips and breaksome rib tips?
Oh for sure, sure, sure that'spart of doing cpr potentially.
So you're going to be okay.
All of this is following thegood samaritan law, so you're
(03:38):
not going to potentially getsued or in trouble for it right,
you did your best and you wereacting in good faith, hopefully,
so you're not going to get introuble per se now.
What are some othermisconceptions we found on the
interwebs there makes?
Megan (03:58):
um that, uh, uh, um.
Only professionals should doCPR.
Jimmy (04:08):
Yeah, definitely not.
I mean, everybody can do it.
There's lots of YouTubetutorials, especially when
hands-only CPR came out, when itwas just kind of when it got
changed from giving breathsfirst versus doing compressions
first.
There's lots of training videos.
My favorite is oh, I can'tthink of the comedian the
(04:29):
comedian's name.
He was in the hangover um.
And mr kim in the hangover um.
He's dressed up in the johntravolta thing.
He's like at like a prom orsomething like that.
It's pretty funny and it's agood one.
Megan (04:46):
Mr Chow.
Jimmy (04:47):
Mr Chow.
I said Mr Cam, I'm sorry.
Megan (04:50):
Oh Ken Jeong.
Jimmy (04:51):
Ken Jeong yes.
Megan (04:57):
Yes.
Jimmy (04:58):
So his video is pretty great.
A good satire video is theoffice space CPR videos.
Those are pretty fun.
Those are pretty fun.
Megan (05:06):
But that's satire.
Jimmy (05:07):
Don't do it like that.
Don't be too, you know.
Don't start harvesting yourorgans.
Megan (05:13):
Don't remove their face and put it on yours.
Jimmy (05:18):
Yeah, so what's?
Megan (05:19):
another good misconception, as you were
saying, the mouth-to-mouth thatyou have to give mouth-to-mouth
for CPR to be effective.
Jimmy (05:31):
No Studies have shown compressions are more effective
than mouth-to-mouth, becausewhen you're doing compressions
you're actually moving air andcirculating blood at the same
time, so it's more efficient.
Megan (05:41):
Another misconception is that you have to be specially
trained to do cpr on children orinfants.
Jimmy (05:46):
Well, it's definitely a different technique, so I
definitely recommend it andpracticing that technique so you
don't hurt the babies yeah umnow with infants it's a two
finger technique, versus a childthat's a one-handed technique,
whereas adults it's two hands.
Megan (06:06):
So what's considered an infant mix oh uh, newborn to
about one year of age, maybe oneor two, depending on how big
the baby is um, a good rule ofthumb that I like to think of is
that if the child is smallenough that you can maneuver
them, like pick them up and sortof fling them about Not really
(06:29):
fling them about, but, like forinfants, if you flip them over
and like hold their head downand slap their back and then
flip them over and do chestcompressions, and so if they're
small enough that you can sortof flip them like a pancake, all
right, I'm digging myself intoit.
Can you help?
Jimmy (06:47):
No, you're doing fine, you're doing fine, that's it.
I mean you've got to be able topick the baby up and move them
and manipulate them and holdthem a certain way in just your
one hand.
Megan (07:13):
So if it's a big one-and-a-half-year-old olds,
you may not be able to do that.
You may need to go child CPR onthat person.
You know, um.
So that was fine.
That's why I kept you lettingyou, let you cook, yes, um.
And then child is, uh, theupper age range of the infant.
Jimmy (07:21):
So the one to two-ish, but too big to maneuver um to
the onset of puberty.
Yeah, yeah, um.
So again, between 8 and 12, youguys start thinking about that
and how big they are, how bigthey are good, good, um, good um
another one is cough cpr.
Oh cough cpr.
The aha just did a social mediapost on this right.
Megan (07:44):
Yes.
Jimmy (07:45):
Go ahead.
Megan (07:46):
Cough.
Cpr is not a thing.
Don't do it.
So my understanding is themisconception came about because
sometimes if you're having avasovagal reaction, sometimes
medical professionals willrecommend that you cough, like
if you're having a certain typeof like AFib or an irregular
(08:06):
heart rate, sometimes you cancough and that can stimulate the
vasovagal nerve and sort of getyour heart back into a safer
rhythm and sort of get yourheart back into a safer rhythm.
That being said, that issomething that is to be watched
over and explained through by amedical professional.
And then the other sort ofreason that I've heard about
this coming about is that if youcough, it'll cause the muscles
(08:30):
in your chest to squeeze andthat'll compress the heart for
the person and it'll squeeze itand get it back into its rhythm.
In the same way, compressionwould, which is not accurate,
especially if we're doing cpr inan unconscious person.
An unconscious person isn'tgoing to be awake for you to
tell them to cough, so right.
Jimmy (08:50):
It's going to be really hard to meet that criteria of
unconscious, unresponsive andnot breathing to get somebody to
cough Right, right.
Another one along those samelines is let me back up a step.
So doctors will have you dothose.
Make that coughing like beardown, like you're pushing, and
(09:12):
then go cough.
You know, make that coughinglike bear down, like you're like
you're pushing, and then gocough.
You know, make that cough.
And they do that while they'rewatching your heart rhythm so
they can time it, so you can dothat, so to your point.
That's how they kind of makethat happen, where you can't
just go okay, I think I'm rhythm, I'm going to make myself cough
(09:33):
and just squeeze your hands andcough, cough, cough.
It doesn't work that way, yeah.
Megan (09:38):
It's very much to be watched over by a professional.
Yeah, leave that to the peoplewith training.
Jimmy (09:44):
Yeah, and if you think you're having a heart attack,
don't throw yourself against asteering wheel or a table or
something like that and try tochange your heart rhythm.
Oh, please don't.
So that's leftover stuff fromthe pericardial thump, when
medical professionals wouldthink the person was needing CPR
(10:08):
and they would hit them as hardas they could in the middle of
the chest to, kind of air quote,shock the heart into a rhythm
yeah and what's the and the kindof reason why I had this is you
get blood force trauma.
Hitting somebody will changetheir rhythm into ventricular
fibrillation which is what thead looks for.
(10:28):
Yeah, so there was some thoughtprocess to that.
But I I've also had peopleespecially early on when I
started teaching at Life Safetythat people would ask what if I
was having a heart attack or Ithought I was having a heart
attack?
Can I just throw myself againstthe table and change my heart
rhythm?
No, it doesn't work that way?
Megan (10:47):
No, not the business.
No, it doesn't work that way.
Jimmy (10:51):
It doesn't work that way.
All right, let's do one morebusiness.
No, it doesn't work that way.
It doesn't work that way.
Megan (10:55):
Alright, let's do one more.
Let's talk about themisconceptions of the difference
of CPR on men versus women.
Jimmy (11:02):
Ooh, there's not really misconceptions to that.
It's just more people don'twant to do CPR on women.
They don't want to touch thechest.
Megan (11:10):
Yeah.
Jimmy (11:12):
Most responders actually won't do that from an old study.
It's a five-year-old study now,so in 2020, a survey came out
that was taken in 2019 that 90%of responders, outside of their
uniform, would not perform CPRon a woman.
Now that stems from just theweird taboos of baring of the
(11:35):
chest and just touching apotentially stranger bare chest.
Megan (11:43):
Especially in this day and age.
We live in a world where peoplehave their phones on them, they
have a camera right there andthere's, you know, the fear of
being sued or having a videoplaced on the internet of you
doing something that strangersmight judge yeah, for sure, and
(12:09):
I'd rather live with thoseconsequences than live the
consequences of not trying tohelp somebody.
Yeah, I agree.
Jimmy (12:17):
As a father, as a co-worker to women, as a husband
, as a brother, as a a son, Iwant the women in my life to
have cpr before on them, so it'sfor sure gonna happen if I'm
around, yeah, and I would liketo think that in society more
people would step up to do thatif they knew what they were
(12:38):
doing and they have the goodintent yeah right.
So I guess what we're sayingwith that one is don't be afraid
you CPR.
Megan (12:53):
Yeah, do CPR all around, just do CPR.
Jimmy (12:58):
Yeah, if it's needed call 911, do CPR and remember you
can always call 911, and theycan help you determine if CPR is
needed.
Megan (13:10):
That's a weird way of phrasing that, but the
dispatcher can talk you throughthe process of like okay, well,
is the person unconscious, isthe person breathing or not?
And then they're trained tohelp you figure out what you
need to do.
So, when in doubt, call 911.
Jimmy (13:29):
Thanks for joining us on the Life and Safety Podcast.
Peace.
What's happening?
Jimmy (00:01):
It's another Life and Safety Podcast with Jimmy and
your girl, megs.
Hello, today we're going totalk about CPR, kicking off CPR
Awareness Month.
Is it a month or a week?
Megan (00:12):
I think it might be a week.
Jimmy (00:13):
It's a week.
Anyway.
Cpr is a good thing to be awareof, hey yeah, but I feel
strongly about it.
Megan (00:18):
I think it deserves a month.
Jimmy (00:21):
I think it deserves a year.
Megan (00:22):
I agree.
Jimmy (00:23):
So no, I don't do it like that, but we should definitely
talk about it, take it seriously, and we're going to talk about
some misconceptions of CPR.
First and foremost, remembercalling 911 and acting just like
(00:46):
calling 911 is helpful.
Megan (00:48):
Yeah.
Jimmy (00:49):
If you call 911 and you decide to do chest compressions
only, which is totally legal,awesome, awesome.
Megan (01:00):
Should you take a?
Jimmy (01:01):
class 1,000%?
Should you take a class 1,000%?
Should you take a class from us?
1 billion%?
But you definitely should atleast try to do CPR.
So let's, talk about what aresome of the criteria to do CPR.
All right, because one of themisconceptions we kind of read
(01:21):
on the interwebs before we gothere was you have to check pulse
.
So only if you are a paidprofessional you have to take a
pulse before you start CPR.
For non-professionals it is theperson unconscious,
unresponsive and not breathing.
If they fit any of those threecriteria, we start CPR.
(01:43):
Not any, all of them, all ofthem.
Not any of those three criteriawe start cpr, not any, all of
them, all of them.
Not any of them, all of themyeah thank you um now that being
said, we place our hand on thecenter of the chest with your
fingers pointing away from youcenter of the chest being at the
nipple line and we press hardand fast yep ide ally we want to
(02:07):
shoot at 100 to 112 beats aminute.
Um another little bites.
The dust by queen is a goodsong to be too.
Or if you're a little shiny,happier person staying alive.
Um, I kid, I do the Bee Gees.
Do the Bee Gees Now you said, Istarted doing compressions.
(02:35):
What happens if you break a ribMegs?
Megan (02:38):
Then you keep going.
Jimmy (02:39):
Yes, if you do put your hands correctly right in the
center of the chest, the nippleline you press down, you're
going to hear crunching andsnapping noises.
That's not necessarily bone.
That's usually cartilage thatgrips yeah, cartilage is the um.
Megan (02:57):
When you're pressing the center of the chest, you have
the sternum, which is a littlefootball shaped piece of bone in
the center of your chest, andthen that connects to your ribs
with cartilage, which is thestuff your nose and your ears
are made out of, and so whenyou're doing compressions you're
usually pressing on the sternumand the cartilage, so the
sternum sort of disconnects fromthe ribcage.
Jimmy (03:17):
Yes, so could you bounce and get tired and start moving
towards those rib tips and breaksome rib tips?
Oh for sure, sure, sure that'spart of doing cpr potentially.
So you're going to be okay.
All of this is following thegood samaritan law, so you're
(03:38):
not going to potentially getsued or in trouble for it right,
you did your best and you wereacting in good faith, hopefully,
so you're not going to get introuble per se now.
What are some othermisconceptions we found on the
interwebs there makes?
Megan (03:58):
um that, uh, uh, um.
Only professionals should doCPR.
Jimmy (04:08):
Yeah, definitely not.
I mean, everybody can do it.
There's lots of YouTubetutorials, especially when
hands-only CPR came out, when itwas just kind of when it got
changed from giving breathsfirst versus doing compressions
first.
There's lots of training videos.
My favorite is oh, I can'tthink of the comedian the
(04:29):
comedian's name.
He was in the hangover um.
And mr kim in the hangover um.
He's dressed up in the johntravolta thing.
He's like at like a prom orsomething like that.
It's pretty funny and it's agood one.
Megan (04:46):
Mr Chow.
Jimmy (04:47):
Mr Chow.
I said Mr Cam, I'm sorry.
Megan (04:50):
Oh Ken Jeong.
Jimmy (04:51):
Ken Jeong yes.
Megan (04:57):
Yes.
Jimmy (04:58):
So his video is pretty great.
A good satire video is theoffice space CPR videos.
Those are pretty fun.
Those are pretty fun.
Megan (05:06):
But that's satire.
Jimmy (05:07):
Don't do it like that.
Don't be too, you know.
Don't start harvesting yourorgans.
Megan (05:13):
Don't remove their face and put it on yours.
Jimmy (05:18):
Yeah, so what's?
Megan (05:19):
another good misconception, as you were
saying, the mouth-to-mouth thatyou have to give mouth-to-mouth
for CPR to be effective.
Jimmy (05:31):
No Studies have shown compressions are more effective
than mouth-to-mouth, becausewhen you're doing compressions
you're actually moving air andcirculating blood at the same
time, so it's more efficient.
Megan (05:41):
Another misconception is that you have to be specially
trained to do cpr on children orinfants.
Jimmy (05:46):
Well, it's definitely a different technique, so I
definitely recommend it andpracticing that technique so you
don't hurt the babies yeah umnow with infants it's a two
finger technique, versus a childthat's a one-handed technique,
whereas adults it's two hands.
Megan (06:06):
So what's considered an infant mix oh uh, newborn to
about one year of age, maybe oneor two, depending on how big
the baby is um, a good rule ofthumb that I like to think of is
that if the child is smallenough that you can maneuver
them, like pick them up and sortof fling them about Not really
(06:29):
fling them about, but, like forinfants, if you flip them over
and like hold their head downand slap their back and then
flip them over and do chestcompressions, and so if they're
small enough that you can sortof flip them like a pancake, all
right, I'm digging myself intoit.
Can you help?
Jimmy (06:47):
No, you're doing fine, you're doing fine, that's it.
I mean you've got to be able topick the baby up and move them
and manipulate them and holdthem a certain way in just your
one hand.
Megan (07:13):
So if it's a big one-and-a-half-year-old olds,
you may not be able to do that.
You may need to go child CPR onthat person.
You know, um.
So that was fine.
That's why I kept you lettingyou, let you cook, yes, um.
And then child is, uh, theupper age range of the infant.
Jimmy (07:21):
So the one to two-ish, but too big to maneuver um to
the onset of puberty.
Yeah, yeah, um.
So again, between 8 and 12, youguys start thinking about that
and how big they are, how bigthey are good, good, um, good um
another one is cough cpr.
Oh cough cpr.
The aha just did a social mediapost on this right.
Megan (07:44):
Yes.
Jimmy (07:45):
Go ahead.
Megan (07:46):
Cough.
Cpr is not a thing.
Don't do it.
So my understanding is themisconception came about because
sometimes if you're having avasovagal reaction, sometimes
medical professionals willrecommend that you cough, like
if you're having a certain typeof like AFib or an irregular
(08:06):
heart rate, sometimes you cancough and that can stimulate the
vasovagal nerve and sort of getyour heart back into a safer
rhythm and sort of get yourheart back into a safer rhythm.
That being said, that issomething that is to be watched
over and explained through by amedical professional.
And then the other sort ofreason that I've heard about
this coming about is that if youcough, it'll cause the muscles
(08:30):
in your chest to squeeze andthat'll compress the heart for
the person and it'll squeeze itand get it back into its rhythm.
In the same way, compressionwould, which is not accurate,
especially if we're doing cpr inan unconscious person.
An unconscious person isn'tgoing to be awake for you to
tell them to cough, so right.
Jimmy (08:50):
It's going to be really hard to meet that criteria of
unconscious, unresponsive andnot breathing to get somebody to
cough Right, right.
Another one along those samelines is let me back up a step.
So doctors will have you dothose.
Make that coughing like beardown, like you're pushing, and
(09:12):
then go cough.
You know, make that coughinglike bear down, like you're like
you're pushing, and then gocough.
You know, make that cough.
And they do that while they'rewatching your heart rhythm so
they can time it, so you can dothat, so to your point.
That's how they kind of makethat happen, where you can't
just go okay, I think I'm rhythm, I'm going to make myself cough
(09:33):
and just squeeze your hands andcough, cough, cough.
It doesn't work that way, yeah.
Megan (09:38):
It's very much to be watched over by a professional.
Yeah, leave that to the peoplewith training.
Jimmy (09:44):
Yeah, and if you think you're having a heart attack,
don't throw yourself against asteering wheel or a table or
something like that and try tochange your heart rhythm.
Oh, please don't.
So that's leftover stuff fromthe pericardial thump, when
medical professionals wouldthink the person was needing CPR
(10:08):
and they would hit them as hardas they could in the middle of
the chest to, kind of air quote,shock the heart into a rhythm
yeah and what's the and the kindof reason why I had this is you
get blood force trauma.
Hitting somebody will changetheir rhythm into ventricular
fibrillation which is what thead looks for.
(10:28):
Yeah, so there was some thoughtprocess to that.
But I I've also had peopleespecially early on when I
started teaching at Life Safetythat people would ask what if I
was having a heart attack or Ithought I was having a heart
attack?
Can I just throw myself againstthe table and change my heart
rhythm?
No, it doesn't work that way?
Megan (10:47):
No, not the business.
No, it doesn't work that way.
Jimmy (10:51):
It doesn't work that way.
All right, let's do one morebusiness.
No, it doesn't work that way.
It doesn't work that way.
Megan (10:55):
Alright, let's do one more.
Let's talk about themisconceptions of the difference
of CPR on men versus women.
Jimmy (11:02):
Ooh, there's not really misconceptions to that.
It's just more people don'twant to do CPR on women.
They don't want to touch thechest.
Megan (11:10):
Yeah.
Jimmy (11:12):
Most responders actually won't do that from an old study.
It's a five-year-old study now,so in 2020, a survey came out
that was taken in 2019 that 90%of responders, outside of their
uniform, would not perform CPRon a woman.
Now that stems from just theweird taboos of baring of the
(11:35):
chest and just touching apotentially stranger bare chest.
Megan (11:43):
Especially in this day and age.
We live in a world where peoplehave their phones on them, they
have a camera right there andthere's, you know, the fear of
being sued or having a videoplaced on the internet of you
doing something that strangersmight judge yeah, for sure, and
(12:09):
I'd rather live with thoseconsequences than live the
consequences of not trying tohelp somebody.
Yeah, I agree.
Jimmy (12:17):
As a father, as a co-worker to women, as a husband
, as a brother, as a a son, Iwant the women in my life to
have cpr before on them, so it'sfor sure gonna happen if I'm
around, yeah, and I would liketo think that in society more
people would step up to do thatif they knew what they were
(12:38):
doing and they have the goodintent yeah right.
So I guess what we're sayingwith that one is don't be afraid
you CPR.
Megan (12:53):
Yeah, do CPR all around, just do CPR.
Jimmy (12:58):
Yeah, if it's needed call 911, do CPR and remember you
can always call 911, and theycan help you determine if CPR is
needed.
Megan (13:10):
That's a weird way of phrasing that, but the
dispatcher can talk you throughthe process of like okay, well,
is the person unconscious, isthe person breathing or not?
And then they're trained tohelp you figure out what you
need to do.
So, when in doubt, call 911.
Jimmy (13:29):
Thanks for joining us on the Life and Safety Podcast.
Peace.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang
Ding dong! Join your culture consultants, Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, on an unforgettable journey into the beating heart of CULTURE. Alongside sizzling special guests, they GET INTO the hottest pop-culture moments of the day and the formative cultural experiences that turned them into Culturistas. Produced by the Big Money Players Network and iHeartRadio.