CPR Debate

[John-C]

Is there also a big difference between giving CRP to someone who has drowned & someone who has had electrical shock or heart attack etc - My understanding from Diving first aid is that in the case of drowning, CPR is more likely to be effective because its probably not a faulty heart that's the primary problem, whereas most other causes are due to disruption of the hearts rhythm being the primary (by which I mean "electrically" or muscular rather than lack of oxygen!), in which case CPR doesn't work as well as "resetting" the heart with an AED.

[Rescuerkw]

As a late arrival in this CPR debate I feel compelled to say that talk of making decisions in the field as to whether one should or should not administer CPR based on statistically projected outcomes is a little worrying. I like to keep my life simple and if I see that CPR is required I give it. To date I have successfully resisted the temptation to initially turn to the latest copy of survival rate statistics to see if it's worth my while and energy getting stuck in. My simple approach is - DO IT if the need is there. I spent some years as a crew member of a motor sport rescue unit and I recall one particular instance when we attended a serious incident where the driver had suffered severe injuries, had stopped breathing and there was no sign of a pulse. We immediately got to work with bag and mask and defib with initially a successful outcome. Unfortunately the driver died while being airlifted out by helicopter. A doctor, part of the circuit medical team later suggested that we had wasted our time and should not have bothered to intervene in the way we did. We gave him our best regards in a way that only a close knit rescue team can and suggested to him that we suspected he was almost certainly being missed at the hospital where he works and should make every effort to return there as soon as possible!

[krenaud]

In my not so humble opinion, there is only one reason for not initiating CPR and that is if there is a mass casualty situation where resources are better spent elsewhere.

I might possibly hesitate if it is a certainty that rescue will not arrive within reasonable time. But, I think that it is better for ones own health to try and fail than to not try at all.

Fortunately triaging is something I've never had to do outside of army exercises. But even there it isn't always easy to to take the decision to assign a low priority to someone who might survive if given care.

[adi]

As a late arrival in this CPR debate I feel compelled to say that talk of making decisions in the field as to whether one should or should not administer CPR based on statistically projected outcomes is a little worrying. I like to keep my life simple and if I see that CPR is required I give it. To date I have successfully resisted the temptation to initially turn to the latest copy of survival rate statistics to see if it's worth my while and energy getting stuck in. My simple approach is - DO IT if the need is there. I spent some years as a crew member of a motor sport rescue unit and I recall one particular instance when we attended a serious incident where the driver had suffered severe injuries, had stopped breathing and there was no sign of a pulse. We immediately got to work with bag and mask and defib with initially a successful outcome. Unfortunately the driver died while being airlifted out by helicopter. A doctor, part of the circuit medical team later suggested that we had wasted our time and should not have bothered to intervene in the way we did. We gave him our best regards in a way that only a close knit rescue team can and suggested to him that we suspected he was almost certainly being missed at the hospital where he works and should make every effort to return there as soon as possible!

Doctors have far more experience of death than we do and have training in detachment from Patents and death. We don't or can't be so cold because lack of experience of death of someone one you have worked on will hit you hard.  However it is easier to come to terms with death if you feel you did everything you could so I would agree with you, Do it. And if you are in a remote area more reason to do it. Far better than sitting their staring at the body or even worse, wondering of in shock. Action makes you breath, breathing makes you think and calms you down. It is a well documented fact that people that do things cope better with the aftermath than those that don't do anything.