I was just cleaning out my junk drawer and found my mouth shield in there🤦🏼♀️ A lotta good that would do me if I ever needed it and not only didn’t have it, but had no idea where it was.
But really in all my years of being certified & re-certified, I’ve NEVER encountered anyone in need of rescue.
If we all carried around everything we could possibly need at every given moment for any possible unforeseen need, we’d all be hauling 20 ft long trailers 😆
I’m a minimalist and everywhere I go I bring as little as possible. Sometimes I bring nothing at all with me places I go. I really prefer to travel lightly.
I was when I was a Scout. I never carried anything specifically around just in case, tho. I never even trained on any tools other than the dummy you practice on.
Funny enough: I am not CPR certified.
But on the other hand I am a critical care paramedic,so there is that.
Privately I carry fuck all. Basically every car has a first aid kit so I can get gloves from there if needed. If I am a bystander somewhere I won’t need more then my hands. The main goal of CPR are chest compressions - ventilations aren’t urgently needed and by then the chances that someone with a first aid kit or a first responder turning up is high. Stop the bleed is something else, there you need stuff and training, but luckily that’s not really a topic here.
Only difference is in my car, I do carry stuff there (a BLS kit including an AED) as we are part of a first responder app network - dispatch can deploy up to 3 off duty medical personnel/first responders (from paramedics, firies, cops, nurses, doctors, medical technicians, etc.) that volunteer for this in additon to the regular units. (ALS+BLS ambulance, ALS+ response vehicle) This way people fairly close by respond - mosf of my cases are within 500m.
BTW’ These app based responder projects exist almosf worldwide and often they are open for everyone who is CPR certified. And if they aren’t they still need donations, if your region hasn’t one pester your politicans why no Because they are literally the biggest step in survival since defibrillation was.introduced prehospitally. Yes,that big.
And they are bloody cheap.
TLDR? Do compressions. Learn to “stop the bleed”. Join a App based responder programm.
The latest first aid guidelines in Australia say to do EAR, but my employer’s training was to use a non rebreather and oxygen therapy with no breaths. Maybe that’s an advanced resuscitation thing. I think it dropping breaths happened during Covid.
A recent heart attack I was at where I worked on the patient with the ambulance (outside of work) also didn’t do breaths.
My certification expired a while back. I have some of those keychain sized shields in most of my backpacks and travel bags. And a large shield in my actual first aid bag.
The one time I did have to do CPR was at a house party and an elderly man collapsed and fell into the pool. I went from very black out drunk to doing compressions until EMS arrived. I will never forget the gurgling of the water in the back of his throat when I gave rescue breaths. I didn’t have a mask, and it didn’t matter because trying to save his life overrode any concerns of him coughing or vomiting.
While waiting for EMS and performing CPR, one drunk guy literally pulled me off him and said “give him some air!” And all I could think was “that’s literally what I was doing.” When EMS arrived, they took over CPR and I took on keeping the man’s daughter away while they tried to resuscitate him. The other people there kept saying things like “he’ll be okay” and I kept having to physically hold her back as her dad died right in front of her. I was telling her that we had to let the paramedics do their job and “they’re doing everything they can for him.” I knew not to say anything that would give her false hope.
Sadly, he passed away. I remember hearing he died the next day, after the family was able to say good bye. So I don’t know if they were able to restart his heart or not or get him on life support.
After the paramedics took him away, I overheard the guy that pulled me off him was going to take CPR classes so he’d know what to do in that situation. Well, first of all, don’t fuck with the guy that does.
Anyway, I hope you never do have to perform CPR, but it’s great that you took the time to get certified and recertified. If you do need it, it’s reassuring to know that you’ll be prepared. I was prepared for breaking ribs, but not for the gurgling sound during breathes. It’s the one thing that’s really stuck with me. And even though the man I assisted passed, I never felt any guilt or regret because I knew that I had the knowledge of what to do and that I did everything that I was able to do to give him the best chance at surviving.
Hey mate, Critical care paramedic for almost a quarter of a century here.
You did fucking great. Seriously, tipping my head here.
Why?
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You started CPR despite being in a huge crowd. That alone takes some braveness - trias on nurses (!) showed that they had issues with it.
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You seemed to done a stellar job despite having alcohol as your situational awareness was still there. Great job.
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You continued despite interference. (That is the number 1 reasons my trainees fail their exams - and the drunk know it better is a very common scenario)
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You did mouth to nose/mouth to a unknown person post drowning. Honestly? I wouldn’t. You did. Mad respect.
The fact that it didn’t work out and he died is none of your fault. Even with bystander CPR being present an extremely low percentage of people survive, even less without permanent damage. One reason one must not forget is the fact that it takes a lot for a heart to stop. A fuckton. We have a multitude of redundancies build in. Sinus node is fucked? Take the AV. Etc. So the chances that there was an issue that was uncorrectable is extremely high. And water,well,makes everything twice as hard. (Truth to be told I never resuscitated a person post drowning/immersion successfully)
To boil it down to a single sentence: The patient is the one who started it.
What you are responsible for is the fact that he had a chance and had another day- it means his heart was beating at some point but the damage was done. You have contributed the biggest part to restarting it (seriously, all our ALS paramedic shenanigans are worthless without bystander CPR) and therefore gave him a chance and gave the family time. (And gave a third person a chance for an organ potentially)
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Yeah, the thing most people don’t get about cpr is that cpr mostly doesnt work. Iirc, there is about a 90% chance that if you have to start cpr, the person is going to die. It really is a last ditch effort.
Fortunately, I did know that statistic. It’s even less for those to recover from CPR alone. It gives first responders more time to get there. That’s primarily what it’s good at. Give time for more advanced life saving care to be given.
It’s not super great odds to begin with but part of the issue is people not being mentally/physically prepared for it. This paper says only 46% of bystander cpr was performed effectively. Still almost always better than nothing, but optimal cpr should leave at least one broken rib and you exhausted.
He had water in his lungs! Did you not think to roll him to his side? Get that water out of his lungs.
But you did the right thing, initiating emergency protocol. Sorry he didn’t make it.
I was… Blackout drunk. Training really took over. My memory was getting into a hot tub with the girl I was seeing, then nothing, then doing compressions. It sobered me up quick, but I was still not 100%
He was dragged out of the pool, and there is only so much water you can get out by rolling him over. There was always going to be some water, and some O2 + circulation is probably more important than trying to get all the water out. The gurgling tells me that air was going in and out of his lungs though, so it’s not like they were completely filled. Probably only just enough to make noise.
I have been a CPR instructor and assessor
I won’t bother with breathing for someone I’m doing CPR on
Good to see constant compression has finally gotten so much mindshare.
There’s plenty of air being moved with compression, and the unfortunate reality is that lots of air just gets blown into the stomach anyway, and the vomit created isn’t helpful
Afaik the breathing requirement has been mostly removed and it’s all about compressions. To quote my instructor “hard, deep, fast”
Huh, I was taught 30 compressions, 2 breaths with the head lying to the side to avoid obstructions in my senior years in high school and I’m gen z so this is fairly recent but I also live in Australia
Did they just remove the breath requirement in america?
Just retrained in June, American red cross. We were taught breathes and compressions.
I got (lovingly) hollered at in the last mock code for pausing to let the respiratory therapist ventilate. things have evolved so much these days. After my round I went back to my true calling and walked the demented guy back to his room.
Honestly even in the event of a code on my unit with my own patient 90% of my job after the first round of compressions is just providing history to the intensivist anyway. My last stroke code I mostly just stood in the corner repeating that the patient didn’t typically exaggerate or present somatically so this had to be real.
Honestly most of my job in a code not on my patient is probably going to turn out being environmental and crowd control as well, making sure the real code team has what they need where they need it and everybody else is out of the way and all the background safety stuff is still happening.
That said even with modern evidence demoting respirations this picture still goes hard asf:
In Switzerland you have to get a certificate to make your driving license and are required to have a first aid kit in your car. If you get stopped by the cops and they find the kit in your car is expired or is not to the norms you can get a fine.
What I carry most of the time with me is a Kinder-Egg capsule with latex gloves. I have them im all my bags. (You can get fucked real bad if you touch a bleeding person with your bare hands. A small cut on your hands is enough for the nastiests illness to be tranfered. At the course for certificate they made sure to tell us all about the risks.)
Also as far as I know in Switzerland, if you fail to help someone you can get can get in trouble with the law. It goes from a small fine to up to 3 years in jail.
I doubt Switzerland has the same issues as the US, but fentanyl can be absorbed through a latex glove. I switched my gloves to nitrile. Added bonus- don’t have to worry about latex allergies.
This is 100% false.
https://health.ucdavis.edu/news/headlines/can-fentanyl-be-absorbed-through-your-skin/2022/10
Fentanyl risks via skin contact is a myth.
Nitrile gloves are important for many reasons (allergies are a big one as you mentioned), but fentanyl isn’t one of them.
Yep. The whole “Fentanyl is killing first responders” myth is absolute bonkers and in a lot of cases you can’t even find any fentanyl whatsoever.
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5711758/
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7443848/
In the end it is nothing more than a marketing scam paired with intentionally goverment misinformation.
Huh. I work around a lot of people who use and that’s what we were told. I carry Narcan in my bag as well.
One of the cops that does security told us that they had some powder they found test positive for carfentanyl about a week ago, so I’m expecting the OD’s to come around any day now.
fentanyl can be absorbed through a latex glove.
Pure copaganda from big babies who had a panic attack
I got certified in June. I don’t carry a mask because the risk of disease transfer is small, and I don’t want one more thing to worry about if it’s something I have to do.
There’s a small, practical first aide kit in most of my packs (2x alch pad, bandaides, benedryl, gauze pad, superglue), and a full one in my car. The one in my car is still mostly practical (all of the above plus more gauze, sling, calomine, butterfly bandage, antibiotic ointment, BP cuff, stethoscope, SpO2). Most of it is meant to stop bleeding I just don’t want on my seats.
I’m first aid certified. 39 years ago.
Nah, because chest compressions in rhythm are the best thing until medical professionals arrive. The degree to which the straws / shields help is minimal at best and actually detrimental at worst.
Also, anyone reading this should get certified. In the US, it takes a couples hours in one day and lasts a year.
I did my CPR and First aid earlier this year (3rd time) in Australia and mouth-to-mouth wasn’t taught as part of CPR this time.
No. Last info I heard, chest compressions were all that was necessary.
I have wilderness first aid certs and have come across people that took up my offer of aid, not CPR specifically.
I sometimes have a mask in my kit, but it’s among the first items to get left home if I’m watching pack weight. In the wilderness, hours from a helicopter evac, if a person isn’t surviving with the help of chest compressions then air isn’t going to make any difference anyway.
Yes and yes
I have one in a first aid kit in my vehicle – I have no clue what condition it is currently in.
Realistically you’re probably just going to be doing chest compressions until someone brings an AED and/or is a professional.
