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By: Kazbop

Kazbop — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 09:50:52 +0000

@Hibbo – what your first aid trainer told you is absolute rubbish, if you attempt to help someone who collapses in the street with good intentions, there is NO way you will have any legal issues afterwards, there has never been any such legal action in this country.

As for hands only CPR, there is a lot of evidence now that it is actually more effective. Stopping compressions to do rescue breaths loses the blood pressure that the compressions produced, making it less likely that the resuscitation will be successful.

If I came across a cardiac arrest off duty, I would do compression only CPR till the ambo arrived…

Paramedic
South East…

By: Stonehead

Stonehead — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 12:36:20 +0000

Rufus, it’s quite likely that CPR done correctly will crack ribs and/or the sternum. CPR is brutalâ€”it has to be to be effective given that you have to compress downwards to a third of the depth of the chest.

Sometimes the ribs completely break away from the sternum. You can feel them popping under your hands, but it’s better to achieve full compressions and crack ribs to give a person a shot at life than do minimal compressions and see them stay dead. If you do CPR on an older person (say over 65-70) it’s almost inevitable that ribs will breakâ€”their cartilage is less pliable and their bones more brittle.

If I keeled over, I’d rather an 18-stone prop forward gave me CPR than an eight-stone librarian! (Having said that, I’d prefer the librarian over nobody.)

By: Tony F

Tony F — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 16:29:35 +0000

Good try 200. Many, to many, don’t know what to do, and sadly don’t want to.

By: Clumsybob

Clumsybob — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 18:22:51 +0000

When working as a PCSO before joining as a PC I came across a crowd where a elderly male had collapsed. He was being tended by two women, one who said she was a student nurse and the other a qualified first aider. I was in shock and believing them to be more qualified that me left them to it. They said they felt a faint pulse so just sat there with him holding his hand. He looked terrible, purple. The paramedics arrived and scooped him up into the back of the ambulance. He died.
I still think about the incident to this day standing there thinking CPR should be carried out. I didn’t have the confidence then to speak out but I would now without hesitation.
I later found out from my wife who was a nurse that most nurses don’t have basic first aid training. Food for thought. Well done 200 I hope I can perform when the situation arises again.

By: Hibbo

Hibbo — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 16:28:55 +0000

Good for you 200, that you but yourself forward for the training and have used it.

I’m a workplace first-aider, but have fortunately never had to perform CPR. Worryingly however, at the last refresher I did, then instructor told us it was not wise to attempt first aid on a stranger in the street owing the the risk of action from the police and parasitic lawyers if your casualty didn’t make it. A sad reflection on the modern world.

By: Fee

Fee — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 15:29:51 +0000

Sometimes, dead is dead. I’ve only had to try it once, for the longest 7 minutes of my life, and the paramedics had no more success than I had. I felt awful, despite everyone (including the man’s wife) telling me I’d done as much as anyone could.

My most spectacular first aid success was a guy choking in the canteen, when one good smack to the back dislodged a bit of bacon. I was really hoping it would work because he was to big for me to get my arms around!

By: dickiebo

dickiebo — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 13:01:47 +0000

A Gent out walking with his wife collapsed outside the BBC Theatre in Shepherd’s Bush one Sunday pm. I came upon them as I was walking my beat. I could see that he had died (I THOUGHT!) and sent a passer-by off to find a phone to call an ambo. He did die, and I have felt guilty to this day that I did not at least try to do something constructive for him.
You did well.

By: Rufus

Rufus — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 10:02:59 +0000

I’ve never had to use it, but I got trained about 20 years ago, back when I had enthusiasm rather than sense.

My first attempt on resusci-annie (sp?) turned into a bit of a disaster, the instructor was about half my size so she had to use pretty much her entire upper body weight to do chest compressions.

Seeing how she’d done it, I (18 stone prop-forward) did exactly the same. I’m very glad that it wasn’t a proper casualty as judging by the way the heel of my hand bounced off of the floor I’d have done enough damage to kill them in my own right.

By: Stonehead

Stonehead — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 23:37:48 +0000

I was a first aider for many years and used CPR seven times. Four didn’t make it, two did and I don’t know about one.

The last one was outside a Japanese restaurant behind Waterloo station. A gentleman in his 60s keeled over outside the restaurant so I was able to check him over and start CPR very fast. I was pounding away when, just as the ambulance arrived, his heart restarted. He convulsed, started gasping and frightened the **** out of me. The paramedic told me ‘nice one’, I handed over and went back to my office where my boss wanted to know why my mind was elsewhere.

The worst was on a tube going in to Kennington Station. I realised a bloke, mid-40s, suit, was in trouble as he went grey, started sweating profusely and grabbed his chest. He went down, but the tube was packed and no one wanted to make space. People even tried to stop me pulling the emergency lever because they didn’t want to be held up. He was a vomiter, which actually proved quite useful as it cleared a space around him. Eventually, a member of the station staff came and helped with the CPR but we didn’t succeed. Nor did the paramedics when they arrived. This time it was my then girlfriend who wanted to know why I was distracted when I got home (just down the road from station).

It’s always a strange experience. Or at least it is for me.