"NY" wrote in message
o.uk...

"rbowman" wrote in message
...
On 07/20/2018 02:55 AM, p-0''0-h the cat (coder) wrote:
On Fri, 20 Jul 2018 09:08:35 +0100, Norman Wells
wrote:

On 19/07/2018 23:46, p-0''0-h the cat (coder) wrote:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-44883708

Finally... Next, money management, health and safety.
What? How on earth do you think they can be taught in addition to the
current core curriculum
Thumbscrews concentrate the mind. Taking away the mobile phones of those
who get low scores would be even more effective.

What is it with you guys. How can this be a bad thing.


Let me see... A 16 year old trying to administer first aid with all the
competence that they bring to other areas of their studies? That's why
Americans favor handguns; it's easier to just shoot yourself.

The problem certainly isn't limited to school children but I can recall
learning techniques over the decades that were later determined to be the
worst thing to do in the circumstances.

I am very much in support of everyone learning first aid at a young age. I
owe my life to the fact that my wife still remembered enough about CPR that
she'd learned in her teens. When I had a heart attack and cardiac arrest
some years ago, she kept me alive until the ambulance eventually arrived.

She was surprised when the 999 operator said that modern advice is not to
give mouth-to-mouth and to concentrate solely on heart massage, on the
grounds that studies have shown that the act of heart massage on the chest
allows enough air to be pushed in and out of the lungs to oxygenate the
blood, and that forced mouth-to-mouth breathing is not necessary if it would
distract the first aider from heart massage - though may be a slight benefit
if there's a second person to do it whenever the first one takes a brief
break from the Nelly the Elephant rhythm of heart massage.

She and the ambulance crew must have done something right because after
working on me for about 90 mins during which time I had no pulse (so it is
said - not sure I believe that) they kept me alive and in a good enough
state that the casualty team were able to get my heart beating. It was
rather unconventional: normal advice is apparently for paramedics to get the
patient's heart beating before they take him to casualty, but in my case
when there was no change and they had used up all the adrenaline that they
carried, plus some more brought by a fire engine (*), they decided to break
with protocol and "scoop and run" in the hope that better experience and
equipment might rectify things.

How the hell does the body (especially the brain) survive with the small
amount of oxygen that can be circulated by CPR compared with by a beating
heart? There were fears in the first few days that even if I survived I
might be brain-damaged, but the fact I'm typing this proves I'm not; the
only downsides I'm aware of are a slight loss of self-confidence and
confidence in my ability to be able to do things, and a more cautious
attitude to driving (I leave a longer gap from the car in front - better
than if it was the other way round!).

Am I right that shocking the heart with the paddles is used mainly to jolt
the heart into a proper rhythm if it is fibrillating (quivering randomly),
rather than to restart an asystolic (totally stopped) heart? Or can it do
both? In view of the amount of adrenaline I was apparently given (my wife
described a gradually-growing pile of empty ampoules on the bedroom floor)
and the recent announcement about the increased risk of brain damage, I was
lucky... Maybe "no pulse" (as she was told by the paramedics) doesn't
necessarily mean total flat-line, and that there's still *some* activity,
even if it's not very coordinated.


(*) I think the fire brigade helped in two ways: they may have happened to
be the closest vehicle that carried some adrenaline, and they were also
better able to carry me downstairs than two paramedics who weren't as
strong.
==

Oh my! What a frightening experience You are lucky to have such a clever
wife!

I hope all is well now??