the American Heart Association has become the first major group

to shift to a compression-only CPR model.  See Story.

        most of us Rescue-trained divers received instruction to do CPR

by performing 15 chest compressions followed by 2 rescue breaths,

and repeating same.

       apparently, this was too complicated for some would-be rescuers,

and others did not like the "mouth to mouth" portion of the process,

so authorities felt that CPR wasn't being administered as often as it could.

      by getting the "mouth to mouth" portion (the 2 rescue breaths)

out of the picture, the AHA hopes that more would-be rescuers

perform CPR.

     the new model consists of 30 chest compressions followed by

an optional 2 rescue breaths.  however, the 2 rescue breaths are

only optional -- the rescuer can simply continue giving chest

compressions until the professional arrive.

     according to the article, "After reviewing thousands of studies,

an international team of scientists found that CPR is too complicated

for the average person."

     i mean... come on...  what does this say about the average person?

how difficult is it to do 15 compressions followed by 2 rescue

breaths?  anyway...

    one thing this won't change is the "in-water, surface rescue"

scenario. it's almost impossible to do compressions while in the

water, so i assume that portion of the rescue procedure for divers

won't change.