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Regarding atropine being pumped by CPR - Found this from a responder in Oakland CA -

“This call was different, though. Neither the family nor my crew had any hope that we could save this patient, and in fact none of us had any real desire to try. But protocol is protocol, so we dragged him out of bed and into the kitchen where we would have space to work. The captain and the driver from my crew began CPR while the other firefighter and myself (both paramedics) went to work. I got down on the floor at the patient’s head, pried his mouth open with my laryngoscope and stuffed an endotracheal tube down his windpipe. The tube is more effective than a bag-and-mask system because it delivers pure oxygen directly to the lungs with no leakage. While I was securing the tube my partner had managed to insert a large-bore IV into the left arm. I called for epinephrine, 1 milligram, the front-line drug in most codes. I followed the epi with atropine, and we circulated both through the bloodstream with chest compressions. Every minute or so I stopped all the action and rechecked the heart monitor to make sure that the patient was still in flatline. We repeated the drug sequence one more time. The patient stayed dead, so we flipped off the monitor, stood up, stretched, and started clearing our mess. Only a coroner can touch a dead body after resuscitation efforts have failed, so we had to leave the poor guy naked and stuck full of tubes, lying on the linoleum. All because he never signed his “Do Not Resuscitate” form.”

did ya catch that - circulated atropine thru blood with chest compressions.


20,214 posted on 04/06/2007 10:45:38 PM PDT by mommya
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To: mommya

One drug was just a small pool and not circulated. Was that the drug?? Even with the compressions, it’s a closed system. Thing of one of those collapsed hoses used for watering. You’re going to stick a needle in it and pushed liquid into it...It’s not going to go far. The compressions would act as a syphon...trying to draw it into the system.


20,217 posted on 04/06/2007 11:02:07 PM PDT by Sacajaweau
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To: mommya

The PURPOSE of chest compressions during CPR is to provide blood flow.


20,220 posted on 04/06/2007 11:37:51 PM PDT by dezrat
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