* Chest compression alone nearly doubled the chances of a good neurological outcome in patients at greatest risk (those that stopped breathing, which accounted for 90 percent of those in the study).
* The good outcomes were most likely if the rescue attempt began within four minutes of the collapse.
* Mouth-to-mouth ventilation provided no real benefit.
* Those given compressions alone survived as often as those given traditional CPR (chest compressions plus rescue breaths).
What do you think about this?  This follows new research that shows mouth to mouth is not necessary for survival of cardiac arrest.  This was studied due to the …read more

CPR…very pertinent, important information for each and every person out there! Have you ever actually witnessed someone out and about fall into cardiac arrest? The majority of you are shaking your heads no, but for all that have been a part of this… it is plain out scary.
I live, I mean live for a good code, cardiac arrest or respiratory distress call. I am after all a cardiac critical nurse through and through, but not outside of those hospital walls. It is just as scary for me as anyone else… CPR-especially on a stranger.
Another study has concluded that chest compressions …read more

Suffering from cardiac arrest while staying in a hospital might be more deadly than receiving such a fit at a crowded airport, according to a new study.
Being a nurse, I find this hard to believe. I would think that we would respond quicker and get CPR and an ET tube in place quicker than an innocent bystander looking for the AED on the wall. I can not remember more than a 3-4 minute lag or down time for any code situation that I have ever personally been involved in. And what if the person needs to be trached or …read more

Test question… True or False? There is a no difference between diabetic and non diabetic hearts in how they burn energy. Hmm, I am going to bet that at least half of you got this answer correct. If you answered false, you are a big winner!
Diabetic hearts rely almost exclusively on fats for energy while a “normal” heart relies on fats and sugars for food.
Let me break it down for you. Both PPAR-alpha and PPAR-beta/delta are proteins that are found in heart tissue. In the diabetic heart, enhanced activity of PPAR-alpha drives the use of fats as fuel, but the …read more

Can you die from a broken heart? Heck yeah! At least that is what a 50 year old women found out while visiting her sister-in-law’s grave. Thank goodness she had an AICD, pacer-defibrillator. And that very same AICD also showed that it fired during the actual burial as well.
The unidentified woman, whose case was described in a new report, suffered an electrical short-circuit that would have caused cardiac arrest if she hadn’t had a defibrillator in her chest. The device recorded the exact time, and her doctor later discovered that she suffered an attack as …read more

This is a little venting on my part today. Call it my therapy for the week. Do you want to know what bothers cardiac nurses more than anything? Patients that come in with heart attacks, chest pain, in cardiac arrest, or CHF and their toxicology screen is a big fat positive! Uh huh. And you know, it is always a mix and match of illegal drugs. It’s never just one. No, they have to mix cocaine with pot with heroin.
Now these are the same patients that can’t understand why they had a heart …read more

When the tables turn it is a scary situation for everyone involved.  Paramedics, doctors, nurses and EMT’s are expected to come on the scene and help a patient in any way that they can.  What happens when it is one of our own that goes down?  It’s scary!  And it reminds everyone involved that no one is untouchable…
Joseph Murawski, 51, a South Amboy resident and paramedic with Raritan Bay Medical Center in Perth Amboy, was pronounced dead at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital. First-aid colleagues said he was taking care of a patient in an ambulance when he went into …read more

* Chest compression alone nearly doubled the chances of a good neurological outcome in patients at greatest risk (those that stopped breathing, which accounted for 90 percent of those in the study).
* The good outcomes were most likely if the rescue attempt began within four minutes of the collapse.
* Mouth-to-mouth ventilation provided no real benefit.
* Those given compressions alone survived as often as those given traditional CPR (chest compressions plus rescue breaths).
What do you think about this?  This follows new research that shows mouth to mouth is not necessary for survival of cardiac arrest.  This was studied due to the …read more

“I never thought I would get to see this mother’s day,” Stacey says.
What we don’t go through for our children! On this day, a Pennsylvania mommy celebrates what she thought might not ever come, her first mother’s day. Stacey Doyle delivered her first born son, Owen, last May. The days that followed were a mixed bag of emotions.
What should have been the happiest time in her life became a scary journey. Stacey developed cardiomyopathy after the delivery and went into cardiac arrest. She received 2 VAD, ventricular assist devices, and was put on the …read more