Learn the new CPR

[sweatmark]

Turns out there have been important changes in CPR techniques which simplify these life-saving essentials. Please check out the public service ad embedded in the following link:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/89913 ... dvert.html

I'm posting this because I can attest that hands-only CPR works. On Sunday 11/04, my heart stopped beating for 12+ minutes after I collapsed during my weekly indoor soccer league game, and friends from my team and our competition saved my life using the new CPR. One of my teammates had retrained for CPR certification just a week before, and two other guys tag-teamed my chest compressions until the EMTs arrived.

Home from Intensive Care yesterday, getting caught up on my R1150R board reading!

[angellr]

Turns out there have been important changes in CPR techniques which simplify these life-saving essentials. Please check out the public service ad embedded in the following link:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/89913 ... dvert.html

I'm posting this because I can attest that hands-only CPR works. On Sunday 11/04, my heart stopped beating for 12+ minutes after I collapsed during my weekly indoor soccer league game, and friends from my team and our competition saved my life using the new CPR. One of my teammates had retrained for CPR certification just a week before, and two other guys tag-teamed my chest compressions until the EMTs arrived.

Home from Intensive Care yesterday, getting caught up on my R1150R board reading!

Glad you are ok!! Bet the sternum is a bit tender right now. Guess I can toss the oral protector from my wallet now. The music in the vid helps people with the rhythm of how fast the compressions should take. Great find. Time to recertify.

[Dr. Strangelove]

Geez
congrats on living though that! 12 minutes is a LONG time. No deficits? What caused it? A history of arrhythmia?

So, did you see the light? Any out of body experience or near death one?

I always ask patients that and most often they have some very interesting stories to tell. Often they are a little sheepish about revealing, but then do. I always wonder, though it has happened rarely fortunately, in the OR if someone is coding or has died, etc, if they are up in the corner of the room looking down on us, and it gives me pause.

You're lucky you had people around to keep you among us. So many people do not know the basics and are paralyzed in such a situation.

[sweatmark]

It's been 3 weeks and still amazes. My chart says 12 minutes cardiac arrest, while my soccer CPR saviors think it was more like 15. No apparent deficits, either mental or physical, as result of the event. We've learned through our subsequent contact with medical professionals, as well the literature, that the odds of out-of-hospital sudden cardiac arrest survivability are slim, say 5-8%. The further odds of recovery and viability are much smaller. I'm back working and feeling ok.

No recollections of that bright light nor out of body experience. In my last seconds before death, primal instincts were focused on my agonal breathing (not a pleasant sensation), while a small portion of my brain took a moment to decide that (1) taking a knee Tebow-style might shorten my inevitable fall to terra firma (face first in the dirt and weeds); and (2) I gave thanks to the Good Lord for a full & interesting life, asked Him to look after my wife & daughter, and said I might be checking into heaven in a couple of minutes.

Next thing I remember was regaining full consciousness 26 hours later in ICU.

My event is arrhythmogenic, cardio-electro physiologist thinks its possibly ARVC, or similar.

[Dr. Strangelove]

yeah, but the odds go WAY up when you have someone there who starts cpr immediately. There are some studies that say "why bother," because the odds are so low to get out of the hospital 1) alive and 2) without very serious life changing deficits
Still...you're a lot wiser now, I'll bet
That's great, no deficits. And alive!

And that's good to know that you had time to make peace with the Supreme Being Who Made All Things.

and what does ARVC stand for? The A is atrial; guessing the R is re entry; the V is ventricular and C is contractions???

Everyday there are new acronyms.

Will you need something in there burned, sorry, ablated?

[angellr]

It's been 3 weeks and still amazes. My chart says 12 minutes cardiac arrest, while my soccer CPR saviors think it was more like 15. No apparent deficits, either mental or physical, as result of the event. We've learned through our subsequent contact with medical professionals, as well the literature, that the odds of out-of-hospital sudden cardiac arrest survivability are slim, say 5-8%. The further odds of recovery and viability are much smaller. I'm back working and feeling ok.

No recollections of that bright light nor out of body experience. In my last seconds before death, primal instincts were focused on my agonal breathing (not a pleasant sensation), while a small portion of my brain took a moment to decide that (1) taking a knee Tebow-style might shorten my inevitable fall to terra firma (face first in the dirt and weeds); and (2) I gave thanks to the Good Lord for a full & interesting life, asked Him to look after my wife & daughter, and said I might be checking into heaven in a couple of minutes.

Next thing I remember was regaining full consciousness 26 hours later in ICU.

My event is arrhythmogenic, cardio-electro physiologist thinks its possibly ARVC, or similar.

Wow! 15 minutes, that is a long time in that condition, especially "in-the-field". Any familial history on this? With cancer and other nasties, your first (mom/dad/children/brother/sister), second(grandparents, etc), and third generations may reflect a genetic impact. Time to re-certify and make sure I know where the closest AED might be located. Once again, glad you are doing well post ordeal.

[sweatmark]

yeah, but the odds go WAY up when you have someone there who starts cpr immediately. There are some studies that say "why bother," because the odds are so low to get out of the hospital 1) alive and 2) without very serious life changing deficits
Still...you're a lot wiser now, I'll bet
That's great, no deficits. And alive!

And that's good to know that you had time to make peace with the Supreme Being Who Made All Things.

and what does ARVC stand for? The A is atrial; guessing the R is re entry; the V is ventricular and C is contractions???

Everyday there are new acronyms.

Will you need something in there burned, sorry, ablated?

ARVC, arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy. No surgical fix nor "pharmacologic management" for this.

Short history of arrhythmia, plus accompanying symptoms immediately following exertion (during sports and workouts). Had ascribed such symptoms (syncope, breathlessness) to either some sporadic asthma or getting older. In retrospect, symptoms first evident in mid 1990s. No known family history of similar disorders.

I'm a chemical engineer, not a life sciences guy, but it's been fun learning about my newest hobby: staying alive.

[Dr. Strangelove]

hell, chances are you've become an expert on it. I'm serious. People who have unusual conditions, and a mind, most often have read more on the subject and keep more up to date than most doctors. Doctors are taught "rare conditions are rare'" and "when you hear hoofbeats, think horses, not zebras," but in your case the zebras are there!
IN med school our old professors used to tell us, "listen to your patients and they will tell you what they have." I think it takes decades to appreciate the truth of that statement.

But, when I have a patient who has something weird I will often say "What's that?" and let them explain it to me, and they will in layman's terms, and then I can start addressing it medically, or anesthetically in my case. It takes many many many years of practice before you can say to a patient you don't know what "that" is, and not feel challenged or embarrassed or diminished in some way. And then to ask questions about it.

I think it is some kind of pride that would make a doc nod knowingly to something (s)he's never contacted before.
And google is my good friend at work. When someone presents to me with ARVC, I will start thinking about all the drugs I may give that affect cardiac conduction and motility and rhythmicity, and then google it with the modifier anesthetic considerations. I don't like to be surprised.

Is that another name for the cardiac condition that some athletes have, hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, or related or only related in that it is another cardiomyopathy?

[sweatmark]

Is that another name for the cardiac condition that some athletes have, hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, or related or only related in that it is another cardiomyopathy?

There are a group of arrhythmogenic disorders that present with common symptoms, including sudden cardiac death. Several of these are attributed to the young-athlete-drops-dead stories we encounter in the media, appropriately named SADS (sudden arrhythmia death syndromes) http://www.sads.org/About-SADS, of which ARVD/C is a variant that presents in patients with mean age 30-something. Many SADS are inherited, and genetic defect markers are available for diagnosis of potential problems within one's family. Seems there's a predisposition for some SADS in southeast Asian and southern Italian populations.

Thankfully, the cardio-electro physiology specialty has greatly expanded during the past two decades, and folks like Yours Truly can quickly google up a bunch of informative resources.

My favorite SADS-related web page is the following:
http://www.stuartxchange.org/Bangungot.html

The author describes how Phillipine folklore attempted to explain frequent nocturnal sudden cardiac death in young men via an evil tree spirit, who emerges from hiding in a bedpost and assumes the shape of a huge fat hairy woman, and who takes vengeance upon a nearby sleeping victim by sitting on his face to kill by suffocation. The stuff of nightmares... which is the likely true cause of death, as dream causes fear = adrenaline = ventricle fibrillation = sudden cardiac arrest.

[Dr. Strangelove]

can the cardio electro physiologists guys do anything or only study and say, "Yup?"
Is there any treatment on the horizon? Can certain specific nerve bundles be identified as playing a role or is this nerve mediated at all? Is the primary defect in the muscle and its inherent automaticity?

[sweatmark]

can the cardio electro physiologists guys do anything or only study and say, "Yup?"
Is there any treatment on the horizon? Can certain specific nerve bundles be identified as playing a role or is this nerve mediated at all? Is the primary defect in the muscle and its inherent automaticity?

"Yup" seems to be the answer. Well, that plus an Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillator, which is like a "Get out of jail free" card. Zap!

[Dr. Strangelove]

AICD
automatic internal cardiac defibrillator---sounds like you're a candidate.

ot...has to be turned off during most surgeries abd current recs are the rep has to come out and turn off anf then turn on after. Used to be we'd put a magnet on it, hear a beep, tape it in place, and remove mag after surgery. That's changed

[Sunbeemer]

Man, that is one of the most amazing stories of CPR I've ever heard...you are one lucky dude to have had folks around who knew what to do, had the presence of mind to do it, and keep doing it!!!
Congratulations on your remarkable recovery...I am just amazed and delighted by it.

I wonder if an AED would have successfully converted you to a normal sinus rhythm?

[sweatmark]

I wonder if an AED would have successfully converted you to a normal sinus rhythm?

No doubt that an AED would have zapped me back into action; the EMTs evidently shocked me a couple times to recover sinus rhythm... glad I have no memory of that time period.

My cardio-electro physiologist has graciously arranged for a new AED to be located at my indoor soccer facility, in case someone else drops dead during a game. I won't be needing the AED, since my newly implanted defibrillator is "on the job"!

[Sunbeemer]

Excellent! Be sure to change the batteries regularly!