ACLS Fun Fact (cont).
Forgot at least one:
- Pounding someone in the chest when they're in the throes of cardiac arrest doesn't do much good. Sure, it looks good in the movies, but in real life? Not the first option. See here for proof.
posted by Mikey at 9:22 PM
3 Comments:
I had no idea that a precordial thump was anything other than a complete fiction. Very interesting.
However, this does not sit well with me at all.
To reach their conclusion, researchers led by Dr. Mark S. Link of Tufts-New England Medical Center in Boston threw baseballs at 30 or 40 miles per hour at the chests of pigs. In about 30 percent to 50 percent of the cases, the pigs went into ventricular fibrillation, a type of cardiac arrest that is usually fatal if not treated immediately.
Please tell me the pigs were sedated.
Yes, the use of pigs is a bothersome detail. I expect the researchers found it difficult to get approval for this study with that particular model, even with the use of sedation.
I did feel better when I thought of the "pigs" not being of the "Wilbur from Charlotte's Web" variety, but of the "sexist men are pigs" variety.
The other disturbing finding is that baseballs thrown at 30-40 miles per hour is enough to induce ventricular fibrillation. That isn't much - I could throw a baseball that fast when I was 10.
I suppose you could picture the Stalinist pigs from Orwell's Animal Farm ("All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others"), but that still doesn't seem quite enough.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:B9ELCuNshQMcS8nnGWzlxhtkMtO4XYRu.jpg
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