Hopefully you never find yourself in a situation where someone needs CPR. CPR stands for “Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation”. If you are CPR certified, you have the ability to save a person's life. As an emergency medical technician, I underwent special training, where I was required to learn how to perform CPR. Ideally, CPR should only be performed by people who have received adequate training, however, without oxygen, brain damage can occur within minutes. If no one else can help you, follow these instructions to perform CPR. The first lesson I learned at the beginning of the EMT course is safety. If there is a situation where someone needs your help and is unconscious, it is your duty to check whether the scene is safe. So ask yourself if you are safe. Take a look around. If the victim finds himself in a dangerous scene, help him escape to a safer environment. If the scene is too dangerous, it is better to wait for help, firefighters and police. Don't risk your life, otherwise you will put yourself in danger. If you have a chance to protect yourself and the sick victim, don't wait too long and see if the person is able to respond. The next step would be to check the victim's state of consciousness by shaking or tapping them on the shoulder and saying in a loud, clear voice, "Are you okay? Are you okay?" If they don't respond, call for help or ask someone to do it for you. Call 911 or your local emergency number. Analyze the situation. The more help available for this step, the better, however, it can easily be done on your own. This will ensure that you specifically sent help. If you're alone, perform CPR for one minute (that's about two or three rounds of CPR), call EMS, then resume... halfway down the paper... about two minutes. That's about one hundred chest compressions per minute. After finishing the 5 cycles, check if the victim is breathing. If the victim is not breathing, continue CPR and wait until help arrives or the victim begins to breathe. If the victim is breathing, be sure to place them in their recovery position, which means rolling them onto their side, facing you. Be sure to monitor their breathing. When help arrives, briefly describe where and in what condition you found your victim. Knowing these simple steps can save anyone in critical situations. As an EMT, I recommend that you and your family members take CPR courses, especially if you have someone in your family who has breathing problems such as asthma. I have faced families who were unable to save their loved one, due to one simple fact, they didn't know how to perform CPR.