CPR is brutal, undignified... and few survive it. That's why I've had Do Not Resuscitate written on my medical notes, writes former cancer surgeon Liz O'Riordan

DAILY MAIL UK ^ | MARCH 27, 2022 | LIZ O' RIORDAN

[KeyLargo]

By LIZ O'RIORDAN FOR THE MAIL ON SUNDAY

PUBLISHED: 18:01 EDT, 26 March 2022 | UPDATED: 03:11 EDT, 27 March 2022

The first time I saw CPR being performed was on TV. I was in my teens – it was probably the American medical drama ER. Maybe it was Casualty.

There would always be a frantic scene of a medic pumping away at a patient whose heart had stopped.

Someone would rush in with defibrillator paddles. Someone else would yell 'CLEAR!'

Years later, as a fledgling doctor working on a crash team on hospital wards, I got to see it and do it for real – and it couldn't have been more different.

CPR, or cardiopulmonary resuscitation as it's formally known, is brutal and undignified.

It's given when the heart stops – so in effect the patient has died – in the hope that it will bring them back to life. But it almost never works, because it is generally carried out on patients who are the sickest and the most frail in the hospital.

Their clothes are pulled off so the crash team can get paddles on their chest, and there are medical staff everywhere.

Some are feeling for a pulse, others are cleaning up blood and vomit. It is noisy. Someone is shouting out the number of chest compressions, doctors grunt as they press down. Rib fractures are incredibly common because of the force needed to start the heart – you can hear the bones break.

[KeyLargo]

"If a patient's heart does start beating, they may be left with bruised or bleeding lungs. And damage to the brain and kidneys is not uncommon – because of the time spent without the heart pumping blood around the body.

In 80 per cent of cases where CPR is successful, the patient never leaves hospital. "

"For a person in full health, whose heart stops unexpectedly, CPR, if given within minutes, offers a ten to 20 per cent chance of survival.

There is still a significant risk of long-term damage, but the benefits far outweigh this.

If a person has serious long-term health problems, and their heart stops unexpectedly, CPR has a smaller chance of success – the heart may restart, but the body is unlikely to recover.

And if a person has a terminal illness, if they are dying, and if there's significant damage to the lungs, liver and kidneys, CPR is futile, in my opinion.

Restarting the heart cannot repair the damage already done by the illness."

[Mermaid Girl]

I was a life guard for ten years. Had to perform CPR once. Saved a life.
Yeah... it would have been better to let this person die...

[Mermaid Girl]

Just to clarify, not being snarky to you. My snark is directed to this idiot cancer surgeon.

[ryderann]

Good heavens...if CPR is brutal and undignified, try giving birth!

[Telepathic Intruder]

"it almost never works"
"Their clothes are pulled off"
"It is noisy."
"Rib fractures are incredibly common"

Does all that matter if you'll be dead for certain without it? I don't know, I'm not dead.

[Gay State Conservative]

Having worked for years in a big city ER I've seen CPR performed more than a few times. Seems to me that it didn't work very often.

[Chauncey Gardiner]

This is propaganda from the narco/pharma hospital death industry.

[mewzilla]

If a reduced risk of being at Big Med’s dubious mercies isn’t enough to get folks to eat right and exercise, I don’t know what is.

[mewzilla]

We saved a family members life with it.

[Delphster]

Being a CPR survivor, I am glad the couple who administered it to me did not feel the same way.

[mewzilla]

...family member’s...

[Made In The USA]

This is one of the most odd and foolish things I’ve read recently. I work for an organization that teaches life saving skills including CPR. The testimonials from survivors are amazing. Of a family member or a total stranger saving a life by following a simple process. Recommend that everyone learn CPR, you might save someone you love, or become a hero to someone you don’t know.

[mewzilla]

But chemo is just fine with this wench, especially in HER case...

From chilling my pillow to using a child's toothbrush ...how I coped with chemotherapy, by former breast cancer surgeon LIZ O'RIORDAN

Wonder if she used the NHS for her care...

[gas_dr]

You bring into specific relief a problem that seems to prevail unfortunately in medicine today. This oncologist is generalizing from her perspective (people sick and dying from cancer) a universal plan. It is inappropriate.

As you point out CPR is important. In the young and healthy patient CPR should absolutely be administered in the proper circumstances. What this surgeon fails to understand is that CPR is administered to save brain function and end organ function during loss of pulsatile blood flow. In adults the most common cause of this is V fib so we used to call it the hunt for VF. Keep the brain alive until treatment of a shockable rhythm.

While this physician is correct most in house codes have a miserable 30 day meaningful survival rate or is not because of CPR but because these people are quit sick with baseline illness that has progressed to end of life. It becomes the discussion of what if you have an end stage disease — does life support give you a chance at cure or artificially prolong a death? I have seen a lot of patients on life support — trach, vent, PEG, dialysis who are miserable for the last days of their lives. More often than not we find that the family is insistent on this type of care despite the wishes of the patient.

A patient has autonomy and I am not allowed to substitute my judgment for theirs in terms of whether to proceed with a full scope of care or limited measures including hospice support. (Please note this is very different than a patient or family being allowed to demand a course of treatment that in my judgment is inferior or dangerous). This is exactly why the love of my life also has full executed authority to make decisions for me in the event I cannot speak for myself. The love of my life and I also have had a full discussion of what we want. This prevents a lot of issues when the time comes.

This surgeon is correct. CPR is brutal. But she misses the irony that in surgery you are stripped naked, placed on a cold hard operating rooms table while a surgeon picks up a knife and splits you open. Using her language it appears that irony is lost on this particular surgeon.

[SauronOfMordor]

As the article mentions, if the reason the heart stopped is because the person is terminally ill and the heart finally gives out, CPR is likely futile.

If the victim is otherwise healthy and the heart stopped because of drowning or electrocution or something like that, then CPR is a good idea.

[TexasGator]

“this idiot cancer surgeon.”

What do you disagree with?

[Lakeshark]

cp, if you are around, tell the story of your own no resuscitation order. I, for one, hope to have someone as fine a medical person as the one who treated you were this issue to come up for us (LL or myself).

It made us much more clear in our directive.

Thanks for your input gassy. Claifying as usual.

[Jumper]

Good. That’s more resources according to the elites who push these narratives.

[KeyLargo]

As usual the fast finger freepers that have not read the story, jump at the chance of slamming the writer.

Her primary input though is that to each their own, and let your family know what you want. And her focus is on the very sick and elderly that are hospitalized. However, under other circumstances in public, etc, the doctor imply s that you obviously have little or no control over what well meaning , and or first responder personnel will do, or not do, and outcomes of that.

Which as she says is it is important for persons to ensure that family and hospitals have DNR documentation when you are admitted as a patient.

[KeyLargo]

Thank you for being one of the intelligent freepers that actually reads articles that are posted.