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Mill Valley child saves another after 2-year-old falls into pool
A 12-year-old Mill Valley girl is being hailed as a hero after she helped save the life of a toddler who fell into a swimming pool.Kara Waluk ...
Posted May 29, 2009 12:52 PM by Todd Lando
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Device saves teacher after a heart attack
Last April, the Escambia County School District put life-saving devices to shock hearts in every school — just in case. "You'll probably never even have to use it," the ...
Posted Feb 18, 2009 12:48 PM by Todd Lando
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San Diego Law Requires New Buildings to Have Defibrillators
Large new buildings, including stores, churches, hotels, restaurants, schools
and theaters, will be required to have heart-starting medical devices on site
under a law passed Tuesday by the San ...
Posted Feb 18, 2009 12:46 PM by Todd Lando
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Congress Enacts AED Grant Bill for Schools: H. R. 4926
Congress enacted H. R. 4926
June 10, 2008, directing the Secretary of Education to carry out a
program under which the Secretary makes grants to local educational
agencies, to be ...
Posted Jul 3, 2008 8:01 PM by Todd Lando
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CPR: Hard, Fast and Don’t Stop
Hard,
fast and don’t stop. Sound like your last shift? Actually, this is the
current recommendation for cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), leaning
toward the cardio part, at least initially. Providing ...
Posted Jul 3, 2008 7:59 PM by Todd Lando
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posted May 29, 2009 12:51 PM by Todd Lando
A 12-year-old Mill Valley girl is being hailed as a hero after she helped save the life of a toddler who fell into a swimming pool.Kara Waluk was playing with her sister at about 4:30 p.m. Sunday in the backyard of their Mill Valley home when she noticed a 2-year-old playing in a nearby backyard on Starboard Court. The little boy had a stick and was playing with the pool water. Kara looked away for a minute and when she looked back, the child was floating face-down in the pool, according to the Marin County Sheriff's Office. Mill Valley child saves another after 2-year-old falls into pool - Jennifer Upshaw |
posted Feb 18, 2009 12:46 PM by Todd Lando
Last April, the Escambia County School District put life-saving devices to shock hearts in every school — just in case. "You'll probably never even have to use it," the staff and faculty were told during training. Last month, the automated external defibrillator — AED — proved its worth at Brown Barge Middle School. Read more...
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posted Feb 18, 2009 12:45 PM by Todd Lando
posted Jul 3, 2008 8:00 PM by Todd Lando
[
updated Jul 3, 2008 8:01 PM
]
Congress enacted H. R. 4926
June 10, 2008, directing the Secretary of Education to carry out a
program under which the Secretary makes grants to local educational
agencies, to be used by the local educational agencies for one or both
of the following:
- To purchase
automated external defibrillators for use in elementary and secondary
schools served by the local educational agency.
- To
provide training to enable elementary and secondary schools served by
the local educational agency to meet the requirements of subsection
(d)(1), but only if automated external defibrillators are already in
use at such schools or are acquired through this program.
CPR
etc. can help your local school take advantage of this opportuninty,
providing the education, AED, and program management. Contact us for details. Check here for details on the AED Bill, H. R. 4926... |
posted Jul 3, 2008 7:59 PM by Todd Lando
[
updated Jul 3, 2008 7:59 PM
]
Hard,
fast and don’t stop. Sound like your last shift? Actually, this is the
current recommendation for cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), leaning
toward the cardio part, at least initially. Providing rapid (at least
100 per minute) compressions hard enough to depress the chest two
inches while allowing full chest recoil on the rebound increases
survival.
Survival is low regardless of what we do, but the
best chance is with aggressive chest compressions and defibrillation.
We know electricity works; otherwise, we wouldn’t implant thousands of
internal defibrillators in patients who tend to develop frequent
ventricular tachycardia or fibrillation. For these patients,
defibrillation is automatic and instantaneous, with almost universal
return to an organized rhythm. For the patient without this device who
suffers ventricular fibrillation or pulseless ventricular tachycardia,
defibrillation is still the key to successful resuscitation. But are
there other considerations?
In 2002, Myron L. Weisfeldt, MD;
Lance B. Becker, MD described a three-phase time-sensitive model for
cardiac arrest: electrical, circulatory and metabolic phases. The
electrical phase lasts for the first four minutes, during which the
heart and brain should have enough oxygen and nutrients that
defibrillation has the best chance in restarting the heart and
preserving the brain. The circulatory phase is from four to 10 minutes,
during which the heart and brain experience decreasing levels of oxygen
and nutrients. Chest compressions and ventilation increase the
potential for successful defibrillation during the circulatory phase.
After 10 minutes, the metabolic phase begins and the heart is generally
unresponsive to treatment. Even if restarted, the brain often suffers
irreversible damage unless metabolic factors come into play, such as
hypothermia, which may be protective.
This agrees with
information from the American Heart Association that most cardiac
arrest victims can be successfully treated in the first few minutes
with defibrillation; however, the chance of survival drops 7-10% each
minute without CPR and defibrillation. And after 10 minutes, there are
few survivors.
This model helps us understand the
recommendation for immediate defibrillation of the witnessed cardiac
arrest patient and for immediate CPR in an unwitnessed arrest.
But
think about it — the only way to provide immediate defibrillation is
through an internal defibrillator, which most cardiac arrest patients
don’t own. So really, treatment of any arrest patient should start with
CPR until the defibrillator is ready and then be interrupted only
briefly for shock.
Effective chest compressions produce an
increase in cardiac output in a stepwise manner; each compression
builds on the previous compression. When we stop compressions, the
cardiac output immediately begins dropping. And since the best chest
compressions can only generate a cardiac output in the range of 25-30%
of normal, we don’t want any unnecessary decreases in that cardiac
output due to delayed, lost or ineffective compressions.
Well,
what about ventilations? For the electrical phase, there appears to be
enough oxygen and nutrients that chest compressions are more important
than ventilations if providing ventilations will interrupt
compressions. Obviously, you’ll need to interrupt briefly for
defibrillation.
In the circulatory phase, there is an
increasing need to begin ventilations, but every effort should be made
to minimize any break in chest compressions. Having oxygenated red
blood cells in the lungs won’t do any good if the cardiac output is too
low to push them to the heart and brain.
So after you
defibrillate the patient, what’s the next thing you should do? Look for
a change in rhythm? Not yet! You shouldn’t even look at the monitor
yet. Immediately following defibrillation, you should start up
compressions. The cardiac output you generate can help any organized
electrical activity survive and increase the chance it will stimulate
cardiac muscle contractions to support a return of circulation.
Our
objective is a fully successful resuscitation. This is not defined by
the return of an organized rhythm, the return of spontaneous
circulation, or even the patient’s return to consciousness. All of
these are only stepping-stones. Resuscitation is only fully successful
when the cardiac arrest patient returns to his or her pre-arrest level
of cardiac and neurological function.
It appears that success
depends on early recognition, effective chest compressions and rapid
defibrillation. So whether you are bystander or provider, CPR begins
with “pump hard, pump fast and don’t stop.” |
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