Comments on: Strange CPR: DV8

By: Marge

Marge — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 12:42:09 +0000

Yeah, we do chest compressions the same in the UK. Because, you know, same sense of balance and similar gurneys :)

I was re-taught CPR recently, and current UK rubric is: 30x compressions, 2x rescue breaths. Unless in drowning, where you start with the rescue breaths. So even though rescue breaths are still used, they’re a small part of the rescuss.

By: RichterCa

RichterCa — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 15:48:29 +0000

Scott: What I have read RE: CPR suggests that it is far more important during CPR to keep blood flow to the brain. The Oxygen already in the blood and lungs is good for several minutes, if you keep the blood pumping. And even a slightly reduced amount of Oxygen in the blood will still keep someone alive.

And I did hear that only doing chest compressions did have a better success rate in keeping people alive.

By: Nick

Nick — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 13:03:51 +0000

I once had to do CPR that way on an EMT call. The older guy had a cardiac arrest and fell off the couch he was sleeping on and got wedged between the couch and coffee table. There was only a foot between the coffee table and TV stand (really small room), so there were max 6″ on either side of him. He had died a while ago so there was a trouser-full of urine and fecal matter, which I had to hover above to perform CPR. Bad CHF too, so every time I compressed some ripe lung juice came out. While the entire Large Italian Family stood in the doorway and sobbed.

Yeah, that was fun.

By: David Oakes

David Oakes — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 21:15:34 +0000

If you hadn’t told me this was supposed to be CPR, I would have to assume that those two men were performing a criminal act. (I can almost get past the mounting as a momentary lapse. But holding her arms…)

By: Beaton

Beaton — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 17:14:52 +0000

I’m going to go out on a limb and say that was all Lopez. Ellis writes a fairly terse script and leaves his artists lots of room for visual interpretation. If you could find the script for that page, I can almost guarantee it would read “Panel 1 — Evo begins performing CPR on the unconscious girl.”

By: Scott

Scott — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 14:48:09 +0000

From my understanding, the chest compression only method of CPR was recommended because: 1) It had results as good as -- if not better than -- traditional chest-compression/rescue breathing CPR. 2) It is easier for the lay-public (i.e. non-medical) to understand and perform. There is still seems to be a fair amount of confusion, if not controversy, about the change. It is covered briefly in the Wikipedia CPR article (linked above) under the "Alternate Method" section, and this Mayo Clinic article discusses both methods.

By: Sean Duggan

Sean Duggan — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 14:27:26 +0000

I too am curious about the removal of rescue breathing. Wikipedia, my usual source for such up to date changes, says nothing about it (I half suspect an edit war where one of the editors refuses to believe that ~~disco~~ rescue breathing is dead and therefore keeps correcting the entry.

By: Michael Eckett

Michael Eckett — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 11:45:16 +0000

It’s taught the same way in the UK. So you should definitely hold him accountable

By: Scott

Scott — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 11:38:37 +0000

You don’t have to be an EMT to know CPR; it’s a good thing for everyone to know.

Regardless, in the panel before the ones I’ve shown, Evo and Frostbite refer to their “Field Training” when deciding to perform CPR — so they did receive training, though apparently it wasn’t particularly good training (or they weren’t paying attention).

By: Richard

Richard — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 11:02:10 +0000

I don’t think it was ever suggested in the story that any of the characters were licensed EMT’s or anything.

And I thought I had too much free time.