RES ResusCue.com by ANONAMED
Bystanders responding to a collapsed person in a public place

Out-of-hospital cardiac arrest

ResusCue.com

WHAT TO DO NOW

ResusCue is the cue to act: call emergency services on speaker, push hard and fast in the center of the chest, and send someone for an AED. If you are a complete novice, do not worry about breaths.

Start here 100 BPM coach Patient detail
Emergency first: this site is educational. In a real collapse, call your local emergency number now and follow the dispatcher. In the U.S. call 911; in Australia call 000; in the U.K. call 999 or 112.

Do this now

Three actions. No pulse check. No mouth-to-mouth barrier.

1

Call

Call your local emergency number on speaker. Say: “Unresponsive. Not breathing normally. Starting CPR.”

Call emergency services

Detecting local emergency number...

2

Compress

Hands in the center of the chest. Push hard and fast, 100-120/min. Let the chest come all the way back up.

3

AED

Send someone to get a defibrillator. Turn it on. Follow the voice. Resume compressions after every prompt.

AEDNear.com is the cue: find an AED near me.

AEDNear.com
AED instruction diagram showing pad placement, stand clear, shock, and resume CPR

Complete novice rule: keep compressions going until the person wakes, an AED tells you to pause, emergency responders take over, or you cannot continue. Breaths are optional only when trained, willing, safe, and not delaying compressions.

Training rhythm

Practice the rhythm: 100 per minute.

Keep time to the sound at 100 compressions per minute: push, release, repeat.

Open-license mannequin compression demo: Bangkok Hospital Phuket; extracted and converted by Mikael Häggström, CC BY 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons.
0 compressions

Push, release fully, push again. Change rescuers about every 2 minutes if another person can take over with minimal pause.

1

Check

Tap the shoulders and shout. If the person is unresponsive and not breathing normally, or only gasping, assume cardiac arrest.

2

Call

Put the phone on speaker. Point to one person to call emergency services and another to bring the nearest AED.

3

Compress

Heel of one hand in the center of the chest, other hand on top. Push 5-6 cm deep, 100-120/min, let the chest fully recoil. No breaths if unsure.

4

Shock

Turn on the AED and follow its voice prompts. It will only advise a shock for rhythms it can treat.

Latest guideline consensus

No mouth-to-mouth should ever stop CPR.

Across major 2025 and current international guidance, the practical public message is consistent: if a teen or adult suddenly collapses and is not breathing normally, start chest compressions immediately. Rescue breaths are not required from an untrained, unwilling, or unsafe lay rescuer.

AHA 2025 All lay rescuers should provide chest compressions. Compression-only CPR is appropriate if untrained or unwilling to give breaths; trained rescuers may add breaths.
ERC / UK 2025 Dispatchers start with chest-compression-only instructions. If trained and able, use 30:2. If not trained for breaths, continue compressions uninterrupted.
Australia / NZ All rescuers perform compressions and minimize interruptions. Those trained and willing may give breaths.
Canada 2025 Chest-compression-only CPR can save adult victims. Breaths are emphasized for children, infants, drowning, choking, and opioid-associated emergencies.

The clean public-facing rule for sudden adult OHCA is: compressions now, AED now, breaths only if trained, willing, and safe. For children or respiratory causes, follow dispatcher instructions because oxygen can matter more.

Special situations

Keep the first instruction simple. Add breaths only when appropriate and possible.

Adult witnessed collapse

Best novice action: call, continuous compressions, AED. This is the classic hands-only CPR situation.

Child or baby

Breaths can matter because many pediatric arrests start with breathing failure. If you are untrained or panicking, compressions are still far better than stopping.

Drowning, choking, opioid, respiratory

Oxygen matters more here. Follow dispatcher instructions. Trained rescuers should add breaths or naloxone where appropriate.

Confused or unsafe

Do compression-only CPR. The goal is to prevent hesitation, rescuer exposure, and long pauses.

Public automated external defibrillator mounted in a community location

AEDs

AEDNear.com: find an AED near me.

AEDs are designed for public use. Open the lid or press power, expose the chest, attach the pads as pictured, and follow the voice prompts. Keep compressions going except when the AED tells everyone to stand clear.

There is no reliable worldwide AED system, and many countries do not have a dependable countrywide public AED map. AEDNear.com lists useful public registries found so far, but a mapped AED may still be locked inside a closed business, airport area, school, office, gym, hotel, or shopping centre.

Open Google fallback AEDNear.com

Google Maps often misses AEDs or shows suppliers. Ask emergency dispatch, staff, security, reception, and bystanders too.

Why speed matters

Outcomes are still poor, but fast bystanders change the odds.

~263,711 Estimated EMS-treated, non-traumatic OHCA cases in the U.S. in 2024, extrapolated by CARES from covered regions.
10.5% 2024 CARES survival to hospital discharge across reported non-traumatic OHCA cases.
25.4% 2024 CARES sustained ROSC rate, defined as 20 minutes of circulation or ROSC at handoff.
47% Survival to discharge in 2024 CARES patients whose first field defibrillation was by bystander AED.

Patients

What you do before the ambulance arrives is the treatment.

For a sudden adult collapse, hands-only CPR is the simplest and most important default: keep blood moving and get the AED on. Dispatcher instructions override web pages.

Open patient page

Doctors

Post-arrest care begins with the bystander timeline.

The clinician page covers Utstein variables, shockable rhythm, oxygen targets, cath lab pathways, thrombolysis, ECPR, mechanical support, neurologic outcomes, and survival endpoints.

Open doctor page

Sources

Primary references used for this site.