Talk about your gutters and strikes kinda day!
In my 20+ years as an ambulance medic, I probably worked around 100 cardiac arrest cases. I can count on one hand the number of times I saw the patient survive even after extended resuscitation efforts. This case raises some profound questions about what we think we know about cardiac arrest.
I can attest from personal experience that non-professionally administered CPR can work. I have done it successfully.
God is doing something.
maybe he was only pining for the fjords
When I left the scene as the ambulance left I thought he was gone only to learn later in the evening from a fellow fireman that he came to.
Been a ff for 33 years and that was my first of many attemps at CPR. Members who were involved in CPR were acknowledged by the NYS Fire Chiefs Association.
What a rush for this old guy!
Miracles still happen. Maybe he has a wonderful life-after-death story to tell.
The chest compression is the important part, because it keeps blood with oxygen flowing around the system, and there is a lot of oxygen in the blood.
Years ago, doctors may the extraordinary discovery that a “pulsed” movement of blood around the body was unnecessary, as long as there was oxygenated blood flow.
A recent discovery is of gas-filled microparticles that can be injected directly into the bloodstream to quickly oxygenate the blood. It can only be used for 15 to 30 minutes to keep the blood oxygenated, as long as the blood flows, but that can be a very long time.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/06/120627142512.htm
There is also now an automatic chest compression machine, that maximizes blood flow to critical parts of the body like the brain (video).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sj77L08BHug
So it seems that these two things, combined together, would be just what is needed in emergency circumstances.
If someone could devise a cheap oxygen ventilation system to fill the lungs with oxygen, and maybe integrate a defibrillator into the chest compression machine, they would really be getting somewhere.
With our new protocols (pit crew) we are delivering almost half our patients ,to the hospitals, with a pulse.When doing CPR properly a patients SPO2 stays at or near 100%. Along with capnography perfusion can be confirmed.I have seen many saves lately.
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The big jaw drop is the statement that x-rays taken later showed no fractured ribs after the CPR