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'Dead' man's recovery shows why prolonged CPR works
NBC News ^ | Aug 23, 2013 | Barbara Mantel

Posted on 08/23/2013 9:46:13 AM PDT by Innovative

Yahle, a diesel mechanic from West Carrollton, Ohio, "coded" - a term meaning emergency -- on the afternoon of Aug. 5, after arriving in the hospital that morning in cardiac arrest. A team of doctors rushed to his hospital bedside and used chest compressions, a bag connected to a breathing tube and medications to force blood and oxygen through his body. After 45 minutes, they gave up and declared him dead.

"He was truly flatlined at the end of that code. He had no electrical motion, no respiration, and no heart beat, and no blood pressure," says Jayne Testa, director of cardiovascular services at Kettering.

But five to seven minutes later, the team noticed a trace of electrical activity on his heart monitor and resumed their efforts to resuscitate him. Yahle is now home recovering, according to Testa.

(Excerpt) Read more at nbcnews.com ...


TOPICS: Health/Medicine
KEYWORDS: health; heartattack; medical; medicine; prolongedcpr; resuscitation
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To: Texas Fossil
Texas Fossil said: "I can attest from personal experience that non-professionally administered CPR can work."

I monitor my pulse rate while using a treadmill.

During my four minute cool down period, with the belt traveling the equivalent of 3 mph, when my pulse dropped to about 115, I could step off the belt and my pulse would rise to about 123.

I believe that this is telling me that the motion of my legs is contributing to circulation of the blood and reducing the burden on the heart.

Thus, I believe that CPR efforts could be improved perhaps dramatically by having bystanders to the CPR effort flexing the leg muscles or massaging the leg muscles. A device to compress the larger muscles using air pressure, like a blood pressure cuff, might also be beneficial. I'd bet that such a device could circulate quite a bit of blood without any heart activity at all.

21 posted on 08/23/2013 4:54:47 PM PDT by William Tell
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To: William Tell

That is interesting. Had never thought about that.

Do you work in the medical field?


22 posted on 08/23/2013 5:08:13 PM PDT by Texas Fossil
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To: Texas Fossil

Nope. Retired engineer.


23 posted on 08/23/2013 5:14:42 PM PDT by William Tell
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To: William Tell

Observant.

I’m not an engineer, but a pretty good tech.

My father-in-law was an EE, he worked in the weapons industry for 40 years.


24 posted on 08/23/2013 5:28:50 PM PDT by Texas Fossil
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To: William Tell

Maybe they should start using those “pants” they put on you in the hospital to increase circulation- not sure what they call that.


25 posted on 08/23/2013 5:44:19 PM PDT by Tammy8 (~Secure the border and deport all illegals- do it now! ~ Support our Troops!~)
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To: Tammy8
Tammy8 said: "... not sure what they call that."

You're right. Just weeks ago my wife had an appendectomy and she had such a device on her legs which would inflate and deflate periodically.

I'm not so observant that I made any connection with my idea regarding an improved CPR technique.

The device used on my wife was plugged into the wall. It operated on a relatively slow cycle; perhaps every two to five minutes. I vaguely recall some inflated device used to stabilize accident victims. I don't recall whether it was intended to affect blood circulation or not. It might have been intended to reduce internal bleeding.

Portable emergency defibrillators are getting more common due to the improvements in computer and communication technology. A device virtually identical to the device used on my wife, with a more rapid cycle, could accompany every defibrillator. The cycle time of the device could even be used to set the pace for the chest compressions.

I expect that in ten years we will see this become quite common. As one of the older Baby-Boomers, I'm in favor of such improvements.

26 posted on 08/24/2013 9:16:52 AM PDT by William Tell
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To: William Tell

They used one of those circulation “pants” thingies on hubby after they removed his kidney and said it had something to do with circulation/blood clots that type of thing. What you described is exactly what I was referring to. I don’t know why I thought of that machine right away when you were talking about an improved CPR enhanced by circulation but it just popped in my head that that might work.


27 posted on 08/24/2013 12:39:50 PM PDT by Tammy8 (~Secure the border and deport all illegals- do it now! ~ Support our Troops!~)
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To: William Tell

I just asked my daughter (nurse) what they are called, they are pneumatic compression devices.


28 posted on 08/24/2013 12:43:16 PM PDT by Tammy8 (~Secure the border and deport all illegals- do it now! ~ Support our Troops!~)
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