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PANJSHIR PROVINCE, Afghanistan, June 20, 2008 – Six Afghan medical providers learned basic lifesaving skills at a Panjshir Provincial Reconstruction Team cardiopulmonary resuscitation course held at the Rokha Clinic on June 18. Air Force Staff Sgt. Janine Duschka, a Panjshir Provincial Reconstruction Team medical technician, teaches the jaw thrust maneuver to Afghan medical providers during a CPR class at the Rokha Clinic, in Panjshir province, Afghanistan, June 18, 2008. This was the first of a 15-class CPR program that the Panjshir PRT is providing this year. U.S. Air Force photo by Capt. Jillian Torango, Panjshir Provincial Reconstruction Team  (Click photo...

None of the adults at the Meridian Little League practice knew what to do Wednesday night when a 13-year-old boy collapsed rounding second base. But 14-year-old Jessica Moncrieff did. From the adjacent field, where she was scrimmaging with her club soccer team, Moncrieff could see people clapping their hands to wake the boy up. Some were screaming. But no one started CPR - not until Moncrieff ran over and took charge. And paramedics say Moncrieff may have made the difference in the young boy's life. --- SNIP ---- She was watching the boy on the ground and thinking she could...

You can skip the mouth-to-mouth breathing and just press on the chest to save a life. In a major change, the American Heart Association said Monday that hands-only CPR - rapid, deep presses on the victim's chest until help arrives - works just as well as standard CPR for sudden cardiac arrest in adults. Experts hope bystanders will now be more willing to jump in and help if they see someone suddenly collapse. Hands-only CPR is simpler and easier to remember and removes a big barrier for people skittish about the mouth-to-mouth breathing. "You only have to do two things....

You can skip the mouth-to-mouth breathing and just press on the chest to save a life. In a major change, the American Heart Association said Monday that hands-only CPR — rapid, deep presses on the victim's chest until help arrives — works just as well as standard CPR for sudden cardiac arrest in adults. Experts hope bystanders will now be more willing to jump in and help if they see someone suddenly collapse. Hands-only CPR is simpler and easier to remember and removes a big barrier for people skittish about the mouth-to-mouth breathing. "You only have to do two things....

New CPR advice: chest compressions only Heart Association hopes simpler guidelines save lives Monday, March 31, 2008 4:00 PM By Suzanne Hoholik THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH Hands-only CPR When you see an adult collapse: * 1. Call 9-1-1. * 2. Start hard, fast compressions at the center of the chest. Trade off with someone if you get tired. If no one else is around, continue compressions until paramedics arrive. In an effort to get more bystanders to perform CPR, the American Heart Association issued new guidelines today changing the way it teaches the lifesaving technique by eliminating mouth-to-mouth breaths. When an...

Preparation does not always mean preparing so that you can preserve your own life. Many of us know that preparation means we have food, supplies, and money to maintain our families in the event of disaster. Some of us take it to mean that we must always scan the area around us to ensure that there are no threats. Sometimes even though we think we are ready, somebody drops a school bus out of the UFO and it smacks us in the head. No one was delivering on Saturday, so the guys at the shop asked me if I would...

Chest compressions — not mouth-to-mouth resuscitation — seem to be the key in helping someone recover from cardiac arrest, according to new research that further bolsters advice from heart experts. A study in Japan showed that people were more likely to recover without brain damage if rescuers focused on chest compressions rather than on rescue breaths, and some experts advised dropping the mouth-to-mouth part of CPR altogether. The study was published yesterday in The Lancet. More than a year ago, the American Heart Association revised CPR guidelines to put more emphasis on chest presses, recommending 30 instead of 15 for...

TOKYO, March 16 -- Bystander CPR with no mouth-to-mouth ventilation doubled the chance that those in cardiac arrest would have a good neurologic outcome, researchers here reported."Cardiac-only resuscitation by bystanders is the preferable approach to resuscitation for adult patients with witnessed out-of-hospital cardiac arrest, especially those with apnea, shockable rhythm, or short periods of untreated arrest," wrote Ken Nagao, M.D., and colleagues, of Surugadai Nihon University Hospital, in the March 17 issue of The Lancet. They found in a study of more than 4,000 cardiac arrest cases that while any attempt at out-of-hospital resuscitation was better than doing nothing at...

CHICAGO (Reuters) - If a dog is man's best friend, a disabled U.S. Air Force veteran showed the feeling is mutual by saving his drowning pet with mouth-to-snout resuscitation and CPR. Lucy, a 10-month-old English bulldog, chased ducks into a partly frozen lake near Randy Gurchin's home in Papillion, Nebraska, but quickly became paralyzed in the icy water and briefly went under. The 50-pound (23-kg) dog was unresponsive and had a blue face and bloody foam around its muzzle when Gurchin, who flew combat missions over Iraq and Afghanistan, edged onto the ice. "The ice started to crack under me....

CPR instructor saves her dog By EDIE GROSS Debbie Shepherd performed CPR countless times when she served on the Fredericksburg Rescue Squad a decade ago. But last week was the first time she'd ever had to clear a dog's airway. Her two black Labradors had just finished dinner Wednesday night and were running around her Spotsylvania backyard when 15-year-old Bear started barking. Shepherd said she walked out back to find 11-year-old Brutus wheezing and struggling to breathe. "Then his tongue went blue. I've never seen a dog's tongue go blue before," she said. Brutus, whose gums had turned white, had...

A new book by David Horowitz and Richard Poe has enraged the Left and alarmed many conservatives. It exposes the machinations of a radical clique working at the highest levels of government and finance to undermine American power. That book is The Shadow Party: How George Soros, Hillary Clinton and Sixties Radicals Seized Control of the Democratic Party. It hit the New York Times bestseller list in its first week in print. Here to tell us about The Shadow Partyis co-author Richard Poe, our esteemed colleague at the David Horowitz Freedom Center, where he serves as director of research. Mr....

If your heart suddenly stopped, how long should rescue workers try to save you? Should you be taken to the hospital even if you can't be revived and are likely to die? Canadian researchers say they've devised a test that helps rescue workers spot those futile cases and save a frantic trip to the hospital. Some paramedics with advanced training — those who can give drugs and start IVs — already are allowed to stop giving CPR if their efforts fail and they have consulted a doctor, said lead researcher, Dr. Laurie J. Morrison of the University of Toronto. But...

Dying deer given CPR By Corey Wicks Staff reporter When it comes to concern for wildlife, people in Joseph put their mouth where their concern is. Literally. Wallowa County Detective Neil Rogers was called to a report of a deer that had been hit by a vehicle Sunday, July 2, in downtown Joseph. When Rogers arrived a crowd of people had gathered in the street and were in the process of pulling the deer out from underneath a trailer, Rogers said. The deer was badly mangled but managed to wake up and stumble past the crowd. It then fell into...

A neurologist from Washington, D.C., an autonomic nervous system specialist from Philadelphia and a neuron-psychologist and psycho-pharmacologist -- both from Manhattan -- have spent a lot of time with Steven Domalewski lately.  They, and others, have been at his bedside in a Paterson hospital, using cutting-edge treatments while trying to bring the 12-year-old pitcher out of a coma."He's progressing at a really good rate," Dr. Philip De Fina said Friday. "He has definitely improved. His alertness has improved. His dad has been feeding him little bits of Italian ice, and he's breathing very well on his own."  De Fina...

Why hasn’t Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger replaced controversial movie director/initiative promoter Rob Reiner as chairman of the California Children and Families Commission? That’s the question that has many, especially Schwarzenegger’s fellow Republicans, perplexed. Reiner has stepped away, taken a “leave of absence” from his post at the so-called “First Five Commission” in the wake of revelations about its highly questionable spending practices under his leadership. But he intends to return to the chairmanship after his Proposition 82 universal preschool initiative is voted on in June, even though his term in office expired in 2004. Many Republicans thought they understood Schwarzenegger’s motivation...

Several Martinsville High School students say teachers stopped their calls to 911 while a fellow student was choking, because cell phones aren't allowed on campus. Witnesses tell police the victim was rushing to finish his lunch before leaving the cafeteria, because you can't bring food outside. That's when they say he started choking, went into cardiac arrest, and died at the hospital. Multiple 911 calls went out from Martinsville High School. Witnesses say Jesse Tucker choked on a hamburger. Paramedics rushed the 15 year-old freshman to the hospital, where he later died. "It's really hard to grasp the fact that...

N.Y. teen performs Heimlich on nurse who gave him CPR years earlier Call it a simple twist of fate — times two: A teenager in western New York state has saved the life of the same woman who years ago saved his life.

DALLAS. Nov. 28 - When it comes to CPR, doubling the number of chest compressions and delivering them more quickly is the key to saving a life, according to the American Heart Association's revised guidelines issued today. The updated guidelines call for 30 chest compressions delivered hard and fast for every two breaths administered by a single rescuer aiding a patient with cardiac arrest. That's a doubling from the 15:2 ratio, or 15 chest compressions for every two breaths, previously recommended. The guidelines, intended for everyone from bystanders to trained paramedics, were presented at a press conference here and were...

ASSOCIATED PRESS DALLAS -- Too busy to take a four-hour CPR course? New research shows the lifesaving procedure can be effectively taught in a little more than 20 minutes. The finding, presented Sunday at an American Heart Association meeting in Dallas, could broadly expand the number of Americans who can perform CPR. "It's brilliant," said Dr. Lance Becker, director of the Emergency Resuscitation Center at the University of Chicago. "I think it's going to make our ability to train people much, much easier." The study, led by Dr. Ahamed Idris, professor of emergency medicine at the University of Texas Southwestern...

California's reformer-in-chief looked a lot better in the previews For an action-hero politician who likes to taunt "girlie-men," Arnold Schwarzenegger sure turned out to be a wuss. Two years after sweeping into office with promises to "blow up boxes," perform "the Miracle of Sacramento," and "not rest until our fiscal house is in order," California's Milton Friedman–quoting governor is wasting our time with a special election that does little more than tweak his unionized political tormentors and tinker at the margins of mis-governance, while the state's fiscal house maintains its disorder of $6 billion budget deficits. The governor is tramping...