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Path: utzoo!linus!decvax!tektronix!uw-beaver!tikal!teldata!shad
From: shad@teldata.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.med
Subject: Re: CPR, First Aid, & Liability
Message-ID: <586@teldata.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 11-Feb-86 11:13:59 EST
Article-I.D.: teldata.586
Posted: Tue Feb 11 11:13:59 1986
Date-Received: Thu, 13-Feb-86 19:04:14 EST
References: <2505@gatech.CSNET> <31200032@uiucdcs> <151@uvacs.UUCP>
Reply-To: shad@teldata.UUCP (Warren Shadwick)
Organization: Teltone Corp., Kirkland, WA
Lines: 36

In article <151@uvacs.UUCP> wdp@uvacs.UUCP (Bill Paris) writes:

>1.  The person was revived:  Only very rarely does a person live after
>    his/her heart stops beating.  Many doctors (undocumented) have performed
>    CPR on countless occasions without the victim ever being revived afterward.

This is true.  Even with an absolutely perfect CPR technique the proceedure
only provides about 30% of normal respiration and cardiac action (assuming
only mouth-to-mouth and external heart compression).  This is improved only
slightly by an oxygen fed bag-mask.  If the technique is performed less 
than perfectly this already low effectiveness drops greatly. 

>                                                            You can KILL
>     someone whose heart is beating by performing CPR on them--either
>     by disrupting the heart/circulation or by squashing a rib into his/her
>     liver.  Even when CPR is performed correctly, the victim is likely
>     to have internal damage and numerous broken ribs.
> 
> ....                  But, if I collapsed for no apparent reason, the last
> thing I would ever want is some rookie giving me CPR.  What if I had simply
> fainted?

I heartily second all of this.  Living in the Seattle area, where
emergency medic aid started, there has been an intensive program of
training the public in CPR.  Even with all this training there is a
joke here, among the emergency medical personnel, that it is the safest 
place in the world to have a heart attack (MI) but the most dangerous 
place to faint (syncope).

To Bill's list of places to receive CPR training, in the Seattle area
you can also contact your closest fire station.

-- 

Warren N. Shadwick
... ihnp4!uw-beaver!tikal!shad