CPR Update

[numbnuts]

He is still with us he suffered a massive heart attack and now they have found he has 3 broken ribs and a collapsed lung …......... oops

 

[RedRider]

Well in mate.
I've done it twice, a neighbour'a partner - she'd been dead some time but I blindly followed the 999 instructions out of shock probably - and someone at work who didn't survive. Pretty traumatic but I'd do it again.

 

[Nibor]

Well in mate.
I've done it twice, a neighbour'a partner - she'd been dead some time but I blindly followed the 999 instructions out of shock probably - and someone at work who didn't survive. Pretty traumatic but I'd do it again.

Third time lucky? I'll get me coat

 

[RedRider]

Third time lucky? I'll get me coat

(black humour) I've got my eye in now.

 

[Racing roadkill]

He is still with us he suffered a massive heart attack and now they have found he has 3 broken ribs and a collapsed lung …......... oops

Well done. Don't worry about cracking ribs, ribs heal. AMIs have to be dealt with swiftly, or the heart muscle damages very quickly. It's quite a thing when you actually have to do CPR isn't it? They should get resus dolls in gyms, the work out is superb.

 

[ufkacbln]

Well in mate.
I've done it twice, a neighbour'a partner - she'd been dead some time but I blindly followed the 999 instructions out of shock probably - and someone at work who didn't survive. Pretty traumatic but I'd do it again.

You did the right thing

Ironically resuscitation is not always just for the victim

In our case, the elderly neighbour was unsure and waited before coming round to ask advice

By the time we arrived, he was obviously not going to benefit, but going through the motions certainly helped her

She believes that she did the right thing, that between us we did everything that could be done to save him and that is a positive outcome for her

 

[Drago]

Well done Numbnuts, you kept your s*** together when it counted and someone is still breathing because you got balls of iron. Top work.

 

[jefmcg]

Well in mate.
I've done it twice, a neighbour'a partner - she'd been dead some time but I blindly followed the 999 instructions out of shock probably

And you were right to follow them.

I've said it elsewhere on CC, but as part of my Red Cross first aid training in Melbourne, we were told the story of man who had be bitten by a blue-ringed octopus, which paralyses every muscle in your body, including heart and lungs. You need to be kept alive until the poison clears, initially with CPR then on a machine in hospital. While his friends were administering CPR, he heard one of them say to the other "he's dead. let's stop" They didn't, which is why he lived to tell the tale.

The lesson stuck with me. Keep doing CPR until the ambulance arrives, even if you "know" they are dead.

 

[Hill Wimp]

Well done @numbnuts that's great news.

 

[summerdays]

He is still with us he suffered a massive heart attack and now they have found he has 3 broken ribs and a collapsed lung …......... oops

On one of the courses I've done I think I was told you weren't doing it right if you didn't break ribs....! We will see what the next one says... Refresher due later this year!

Glad to hear that your efforts have helped him! Well done!

 

[Racing roadkill]

On one of the courses I've done I think I was told you weren't doing it right if you didn't break ribs....! We will see what the next one says... Refresher due later this year!

Glad to hear that your efforts have helped him! Well done!

If you're breaking ribs, you're probably not maintaining contact with the chest, as you lift off. You then have a tendency to smash down on the chest, off line from the sternum, as you go for the next compression, this is where the broken ribs tend to happen ( in my experience). It's also why I tend to make sure I send anyone who's making ( or about to ) make this ( very common ) mistake for an AED, if I get there in time. It means they are still doing something to help, without causing any more issues. It's still preferable to break ribs by screwing up the chest compressions, than do nothing though.

 

[summerdays]

If you're breaking ribs, you're probably not maintaining contact with the chest, as you lift off. You then have a tendency to smash down on the chest, off line from the sternum, as you go for the next compression, this is where the broken ribs tend to happen ( in my experience). It's also why I tend to make sure I send anyone who's making ( or about to ) make this ( very common ) mistake for an AED, if I get there in time. It means they are still doing something to help, without causing any more issues. It's still preferable to break ribs by screwing up the chest compressions, than do nothing though.

It's one of those skills that I prefer to have not actually use and I'd like to keep it that way! But if I got it wrong in the moment of not quite remembering then I'd still be pleased I'd tried. There is always something that changes every time I take a refresher course, but as you say better to do something than stand around doing nothing. I worry my mind would be blank when I needed the knowledge, or I'd just freeze.

 

[Racing roadkill]

I worry my mind would be blank when I needed the knowledge, or I'd just freeze.

Nothing much important has changed ( if the course is following resus council guidelines) in over 6 years. Number of compressions is still 30, number of rescue breaths is still 2, to clarify an oft (mis) quoted 'variation' ( ideally 15:2 for a child, but 30:2 is the one to remember) at 100 -120 pumps per minute (otherwise the blood pressure drops too much / insufficient circulation occurs). Things do get added more frequently, but the core things don't without very good research based justification. Freezing up at the scene is very very common, it's something only bitter experience can help avoid, and one of the very good reason the 's' in DRs ABC should be re-iterated. There are often a lot of embellishments added, by certain agencies ( who shall remain nameless) which are not actually officially part of resus council guidelines, and can muddy the waters unnecessarily. However, any first aid training is going to be more helpful than none.

 

[MossCommuter]

Does one still need to do the mouth to mouth thing? I thought I read somewhere that that had been taken out of the "official method".

Maybe I should polish up. Last training I had was in cub scouts forty years ago.

 

[ufkacbln]

It was more about the fact that in studies it was shown that those without mouth to mouth had a higher success rate

It was shown that the delay in circulating blood by repositioning and prfrforming mouth to mouth was detrimental when compared to supporting the circulation