Barely a month after a runner collapsed & die in KL Marathon, today I witness the same scenario at Bkt Jalil Park this morning. A male jogger about 50yrs old collapsed while running & was given CPR by few good samaritans & a lady doctor on her walk came by to assist. He was unconscious while his young daugher kept crying & calling out "Daddy, daddy pls wake up". I was truly helpless except hold on to her & comfort her while she waited for her mum to come. The ambulance was called for earlier but I overheard DBKL cleaner said he has been unconscious like more than 30mins or so. In situation like this with typical Malaysian scenario crowd around & watch & gaped & kepo without really trying to do something anything is frustrating.
The lady doctor probably 50's said aloud "Can anyone here do mouth to mouth resuscitation as I don't have enough strength?" Silence was deafening as another 2 guys continously did CPR on him.
What I want to know in this type of emergency, would it be better to just rush him to nearest 24hrs clinic (less than 10mins away) or hospital? Or wait for the ambulance to arrive ? The StJohns did come with life saving equipment but I couldn't bear to stay and watch as he had that look of someone with lack of oxygen.
The ambulance left with the wife & daugher & someone said Shall we learn CPR ? I don't know.... never again. The lady doctor mentioned later It doesn't look good.
Where do we learn the proper way of doing CPR ? People in general avoid mouth to mouth if they can help it.
Someone offered advice that one can try using needle/pin & prick the fingertips to evoke pain so the unconscious person may wake up.. is this true ? Don't laugh, just being curious.
Study Question: Does compression-only cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) result in better outcomes than conventional CPR?
Conclusions: The investigators concluded that compression-only bystander CPR before the arrival of emergency medical services personnel does not compromise or significantly improve survival in patients with out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA).
A doctor commented on this study: Glen Sumner M.D. 9:16 PM on July 29, 2010 This study reiterates the physiologic principle that blood flow is likely more important when stratified against the minimal increase in oxygenation provided by mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. The limitation of this study is that physiologic data such as systolic and mean BP during compressions were not recorded; nor was oxygenation. Thus, the " quality" of both CPR and oxygenation were not directly evaluated. If the study were to be stratified by length of resuscitation time, it may show that mouth-to-mouth combined with effective compression may be relatively more important
Tq for commenting to this post. What I do know we have to be responsible for our own health & know your limitations when it comes to exercise. I just remembered years ago, a family male friend (50's) had chest pains & felt dizzy after doing chest pumping exercise at home. He drove himself accompanied by young son to private hospital, insisted on waiting for his cardiologist who was not in the clinic. While waiting he collapsed rushed to Emergency Room, despite attempts to resuscitate him, he died in the hospital. When its time to go its time to go.
In this Emergency What do we do?
Posted - 17/07/2010 : 12:58:49
if they can help it.