Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

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

Posted on 03/27/2022 5:39:55 AM PDT by 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.

(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...


TOPICS: Chit/Chat; Health/Medicine; Reference; Science
KEYWORDS: cpr; dnr; emergency; heartattack; resusitation
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 41-6061-8081-100101-102 next last
To: David Chase

You’re an awesome person. Thank you.


81 posted on 03/27/2022 10:26:18 AM PDT by stevio
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 80 | View Replies]

To: David Chase

I used to do CPR a lot and when you do that first compression on a dead 90 year old cancer patient and break all her ribs, you know there are times you’re not supposed to do it.

By the time I was SAR at night, I always carried an ophtalmoscope, and if they were fixed and dilated when I arrived on scene, a check for “boxcars” (clotted blood in the retinal vessels) was enough to stop it.


82 posted on 03/27/2022 10:30:36 AM PDT by Jim Noble (Who saves the nation breaks no law)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 76 | View Replies]

To: OpusatFR

“ My favorite movie CPR goof is the “slam the patient’s chest as hard as you can with your fist” moment.”
—————————————————————————————————————————

That’s called a “cardiac thump” and was done only with a witnessed arrest.

Don’t think it’s done often anymore, I might do it but it all depends.


83 posted on 03/27/2022 10:32:33 AM PDT by David Chase
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 65 | View Replies]

To: KeyLargo

I’ve got a friend that’s a doctor. He’s got DNR tattooed right over his heart. Says he’s done it, and seen the damage, not his path. Everybody has to make their own decisions.


84 posted on 03/27/2022 10:38:12 AM PDT by discostu (like a dog being shown a card trick)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Jim Noble

Almost always I’d do the very old one handed.

It still gave their fragile chest/heart good compressions but helped remind me to avoid full throttle. LOL Besides when I’m in the back alone, the BVM is taped to my free hand so I can whiff them every now and then.

Good grief, the old days……..

We had to work everyone unless they were burnt beyond recognition, beheaded, or rigor…….


85 posted on 03/27/2022 10:41:36 AM PDT by David Chase
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 82 | View Replies]

To: catpuppy

Wow! Thanks for sharing.


86 posted on 03/27/2022 10:45:00 AM PDT by Two Kids' Dad (((( When tyranny becomes law, resistance becomes duty. ))))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 59 | View Replies]

To: gas_dr

I personally have a Health Care Proxy.

Pre Covid, I didn’t see the government and the medical industry as genocidal.

I see things differently today


87 posted on 03/27/2022 10:51:34 AM PDT by delchiante
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 71 | View Replies]

To: KeyLargo

This writer is foolish

And vain

Even in death


88 posted on 03/27/2022 10:54:40 AM PDT by wardaddy (Free Republic has gone inswlllwlsllllllane but it's fun)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: gas_dr

“Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it.” Cut off the support network and isolate the target from sympathy. Go after people and not institutions; people hurt faster than institutions.

Textbook.


89 posted on 03/27/2022 10:55:25 AM PDT by one guy in new jersey
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 72 | View Replies]

To: one guy in new jersey

You simply prove the point you have nothing to add. Usually when someone gets their ass nicked the admit it and go on.

I am sorry you are not a freedom loving individual engaged in rational debate. Maybe you would be happier over at DU


90 posted on 03/27/2022 11:01:53 AM PDT by gas_dr (Conditions of Socratic debate: Intelligence, Candor, and Good Will. )
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 89 | View Replies]

To: gas_dr

Full sentences. Well done.

May as well give the devil his due.

-OGINJ


91 posted on 03/27/2022 11:04:50 AM PDT by one guy in new jersey
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 90 | View Replies]

To: one guy in new jersey

At what point does it dawn on you that you are becoming more and more irrational. Again I will ask you a simple question quoting from the book that I take my advice from (the Bible as I suspect you may be unfamiliar with it). Let your yes be your yes and your no be your no.

If I have said something inaccurate in this thread regarding CPR, speak to it. Stop playing games of rhetoric and hiding. Show me where I have said something that you know to be untrue.

Otherwise heed the lesson of it is better to be quiet and thought a fool, then speak up and remove all doubt.


92 posted on 03/27/2022 11:09:13 AM PDT by gas_dr (Conditions of Socratic debate: Intelligence, Candor, and Good Will. )
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 91 | View Replies]

To: KeyLargo

I was an EMT for more than two decades and estimate I have probably performed CPR more than 50 times. I agree the process is brutal and not often successful, but without CPR the results are 100% fatal. I have seen some successes and my squad was able to revive revive some patients, particularly when our ambulance was equipped with defibrillators.

I especially remember one of my first CPRs. The patient was an 80 year old female who had congestive heart failure. We had transported her several times before so this night was not much different. However, shortly after we loaded her and were enroute she went into cardiac arrest. I inserted an oral airway and began ventilation with an ambu bag while my partner began compressions (this was before our service offered full paramedic care) Given her age and previous heart problems neither my partner nor I expected to revive her. I was thus very surprised when she regained consciousness and reached over to pull out the airway. She survived and after a few days in intensive care was discharged to her home. We met her doctor at the hospital and he told us this was her fourth cardiac arrest. Once in his office, once in ICU and now twice in out of hospital. One tough lady.


93 posted on 03/27/2022 11:15:30 AM PDT by The Great RJ
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: gas_dr

Are you this gracious with everyone who doesn’t worship the ground you walk on?

Or just with one guy.

Asking for a friend.


94 posted on 03/27/2022 11:39:24 AM PDT by one guy in new jersey
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 92 | View Replies]

To: David Chase

it doesn’t work more often than it does.

 

Way, way back in the day, the guy who taught CPR to my academy class started with this observation "This probably won't work", before going on to say "But on the other hand, if you've got someone in cardiac arrest, they're already dead by any conventional definition, so really, it's all upside".

95 posted on 03/27/2022 12:32:17 PM PDT by absalom01 (You should do your duty in all things. You cannot do more, and you should never wish to do less.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 77 | View Replies]

To: absalom01

So true. Go for broke.

They have nothing left to lose and everything to gain.


96 posted on 03/27/2022 12:33:27 PM PDT by David Chase
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 95 | View Replies]

To: David Chase

I agree. If CPR might work, it costs nothing but some effort to try.


97 posted on 03/27/2022 12:41:40 PM PDT by SauronOfMordor (A Leftist can't enjoy life unless they are controlling, hurting, or destroying others)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 80 | View Replies]

To: KeyLargo

Considering the fact that CPR is intended to be performed on already clinically DEAD people, the objections raised against it seem trivial to me considering the possible outcome might be LIFE...

Objections to CPR can be addressed with a physician consult and a DNR order placed in hospital chart, or the patient’s File of Life...Otherwise, nothing to be lost by going for it far as I can see...


98 posted on 03/27/2022 2:18:00 PM PDT by elteemike (Light is faster than sound; that's why so many people appear bright until you hear them speak.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: discostu

Yes.


99 posted on 03/27/2022 3:41:42 PM PDT by KeyLargo
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 84 | View Replies]

To: KeyLargo

Most doctors now just seem to wanna kill people.


100 posted on 03/27/2022 6:14:15 PM PDT by Trillian
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 41-6061-8081-100101-102 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson