
Photo by Curtis Gregory Perry on Foter.com / CC BY-NC-SA
Our nephew is an EMT, and when he told me that when performing CPR, keeping the BeeGees’ Stayin’ Alive chorus in your head would ensure that your chest compression timing was correct, I was amazed. I thought it was a clever idea, but I confess I kind of though he made it up. Then I came across today’s thing. New York Presbyterian Hospital, known for its cardiac unit, maintains a CPR playlist on Spotify. The playlist contains only songs of between 100 and 120 beats per minute, the optimal rate for hands-only CPR.
Of course, the playlist includes the BeeGees song above, but it’s got something for everyone, with a wide range of artists from Simon & Garfunkel (Cecelia) to Notorious B.I.G. (Notorious B.I.G. feat. Lil’ Kim & Puff Daddy) to Lady Gaga (Just Dance).
F.Y.I., I thought I’d include some basic CPR instructions to go with the playlist, but when I started to type “how to perform CPR” into Google and I got to the word “perform,” Google suggested “how to perform an exorcism.” That’s a post for another day…
In case you don’t want to sign up for Spotify, here are the songs currently in the playlist. It would make a pretty solid party mix as well!
You can play the playlist here, and I recommend you follow the hospital’s on-point Twitter feed.
I hope you’ll never need these resources, but if you aren’t CPR trained and would like the basics, here’s a good, quick overview from CPRCertified.com.
October 15, 2018 at 8:08 am
You just never know when you might need this.
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October 15, 2018 at 8:36 am
That’s exactly right. And I really feel like there’s at least one song on this list that most people can call to mind when the need arises.
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October 15, 2018 at 8:10 am
This is a great list, and a wonderful public service post!
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October 15, 2018 at 8:38 am
Having had my own heart troubles, I’m always conscious of how important CPR is. So when the playlist came along, it seemed like the perfect thing to share!
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October 15, 2018 at 8:38 am
I had to use it four times. Thanks for making this important post. hal
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October 15, 2018 at 9:40 am
That must have been so frightening! I’m glad you found the post valuable.
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October 15, 2018 at 2:01 pm
Brilliant! That is such a great tip. I know several of those songs well so can deploy them if ever needed. I am actually doing my annual CPR training on Thursday so I will be humming Staying Alive as I do the chest compressions.
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October 15, 2018 at 4:38 pm
That’s my go-to as well!
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October 17, 2018 at 10:16 pm
Heart and Soul is a great one too, along with Staying Alive! Yes, a genre for everyone on that list.
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October 17, 2018 at 11:09 pm
I loved T’Pau so much! I played that song (on vinyl) a hundred times.
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