American Heart Association recommends hands-only CPR. NPR's talk of the nation has a story on this.

When an adult suddenly collapses, trained or untrained bystanders - that means a person near the victim - should:

1) Call 911
2) Push hard and fast in the center of the chest.

People who have sudden cardiac arrest will die unless someone takes action immediately. Untrained bystanders might do something wrong or make it worse. But the more chances are they can save lives! In this case, doing something is better than doing nothing.

"Hands-Only (Compression-Only) Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation: A Call to Action for Bystander Response to Adults Who Experience Out-of-Hospital Sudden Cardiac Arrest" published on the medical journal Circulation has more details.

The American Heart Association (AHA) Emergency Cardiovascular Care (ECC) Committee recommends the following.

When an adult suddenly collapses, trained or untrained bystanders should--at a minimum--activate their community emergency medical response system (eg, call 911) and provide high-quality chest compressions by pushing hard and fast in the center of the chest, minimizing interruptions (Class I).

● If a bystander is not trained in CPR, then the bystander should provide hands-only CPR (Class IIa). The rescuer should continue hands-only CPR until an automated external defibrillator arrives and is ready for use or EMS providers take over care of the victim.

● If a bystander was previously trained in CPR and is confident in his or her ability to provide rescue breaths with minimal interruptions in chest compressions, then the bystander should provide either conventional CPR using a 30:2 compression-to-ventilation ratio (Class IIa) or handsonly CPR (Class IIa). The rescuer should continue CPR until an automated external defibrillator arrives and is ready for use or EMS providers take over care of the victim.

● If the bystander was previously trained in CPR but is not confident in his or her ability to provide conventional CPR including high-quality chest compressions (ie, compressions of adequate rate and depth with minimal interruptions) with rescue breaths, then the bystander should give hands-only CPR (Class IIa). The rescuer should continue hands-only CPR until an automated external defibrillator arrives and is ready for use or EMS providers take over the care of the victim.