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 fact that when an average bystander witnesses someone go down from cardiac arrest, they are not super psyched about swapping spit with the unknown.

This was reported in the Harvard Women’s Heath Watch, which stressed the background and importance of the development: This new approach isn’t widely known or usually taught to the public because, up to now, there hasn’t been enough evidence to achieve broad endorsement.

Researchers are now insisting that there is ample evidence that shows the “new” approach to be superior from a neurological point of view and will help provide more volunteers that will assist in cardiac resuscitation now that mouth to mouth is eliminated.

They do warn not to forget your traditional CPR for drowning victims and such.  I personally carry a shield with me in my purse, so I can pop it over someones mouth if mouth to mouth is ever needed.  I learned my lesson the hard way.  After 10 minutes of administering CPR, the helpless bystander that I was resuscitating vomited in my mouth.  Yeah, it was so gross, but he lived!

via The Bulletin Philadelphia 

Post from: Blisstree

CPR- no mouth needed!

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 alone are more beneficial in this situation then mouth to mouth combined with compressions. That is great info. How many of you would want to put your lips around a strangers lips and start blowing away? Uh huh, me neither!!

This is exactly one of the speculations that researchers supposed when examining the results. There is an increased time delay when thinking about whether or not to carry out CPR when the mouth was involved versus just chest compressions. It makes perfect sense to me. I hope that you share this info with everyone you know, it could save someones life!!

Post from: Blisstree

Just Chest Compressions Enough To Save Lives

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 a balloon pump inserted for concractility of a mushy heart? I don’t see that happening on a mall floor.

The study published by the New England Journal of Medicine stated that in 1/3 of all hospital cardiac arrests, nurses and doctors did not move quickly enough resulting in brain deprivation and death. Hmm… I don’t know about this one. What do you think?

via Mens Daily Health

Post from: Blisstree

Safer To Cardiac Arrest In A Mall Bathroon Than A Hospital…

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 role of PPAR-beta/delta has been unknown, which is unfortunate being that this protein increases cardiac function. In the mice that were engineered to mimic a diabetic heart, increased PRAR-alpha, there was increased fat, decreased sugar for fuel and a higher incidence of cardiac arrest.

Let’s hope that this discovery will aid scientists in further dissecting and discovering a way to increase those good ol’ PPAR-beta/delta proteins among diabetics.

Post from: Blisstree

Diabetic Hearts Burn The Fat But Leave The Sugar Behind

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 her brother’s wife was being buried.

This was the only time that her AICD fired over the last 6 months. Stress can be so powerful in ones body. This type of incidence is unfortunate, and she was lucky, but the technology does allow us to better examine how our bodies react to situations and stress.

The woman’s brush with death could have been coincidental. But it came exactly a week after her father’s unexpected death; the sister-in-law collapsed and died the same day after hearing that her father-in-law had died.

Post from: Blisstree

Answer Is In… You Can Die From A Broken Heart!

Now these are the same patients that can’t understand why they had a heart attack at the ripe ol’ age of 28 and don’t understand why they can’t go out to the corner to have a smoke with a peripheral line inserted directly into their vein. Hello people???? Are you kidding me.

And then these very same patients are vomiting, shaking. sweating and crying for their mommies because they are starting withdrawal. Which by the way, is no fun at all! I can attest to that. I have seen it countless times and it is never pretty.

So instead of this cardiac nurse taking care of her sick and end stage diseased patients, she is stuck in the room with the big ol’ baby that is going through something that he brought on all by himself. These other patients didn’t ask to have cardiomyopathy and be on heart transplant lists and be fighting for their lives at 58 years old. They are sick and deserve my attention.

I know I took that oath and all, and I try to treat all my patients the same. But the drug abuse, nasty, verbally abusive, physically assaulting patients that are taking up one of our beds to detox after inducing a heart attack due to partying make it darn hard, you know?

What do you think about this? Would you be upset if your loved one was sharing a room with someone that was throwing things, cursing and hitting their nurses because they didn’t want to be in the hospital after coming in via 911 and cardiac arrest? Would you feel safe leaving them there in that room? Just something to think about. Sometimes us nurses have to let it out, or else we would cry!

Post from: Blisstree

Do You Want To Know What Bothers A Cardiac Nurse?

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 cardiac arrest.

That is just not suppose to happen.  We are suppose to help others, not need help ourselves.  Healthcare professionals just aren’t wired to think that way!

via APP.com

Post from: Blisstree

A New Jersey Paramedic Dies From Cardiac Arrest While Tending To A Patient

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 fact that when an average bystander witnesses someone go down from cardiac arrest, they are not super psyched about swapping spit with the unknown.

This was reported in the Harvard Women’s Heath Watch, which stressed the background and importance of the development: This new approach isn’t widely known or usually taught to the public because, up to now, there hasn’t been enough evidence to achieve broad endorsement.

Researchers are now insisting that there is ample evidence that shows the “new” approach to be superior from a neurological point of view and will help provide more volunteers that will assist in cardiac resuscitation now that mouth to mouth is eliminated.

They do warn not to forget your traditional CPR for drowning victims and such.  I personally carry a shield with me in my purse, so I can pop it over someones mouth if mouth to mouth is ever needed.  I learned my lesson the hard way.  After 10 minutes of administering CPR, the helpless bystander that I was resuscitating vomited in my mouth.  Yeah, it was so gross, but he lived!

via The Bulletin Philadelphia 

Post from: Blisstree

New Approach to CPR Eliminates The Need For Mouth to Mouth

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 wait list for a heart.

It was touch and go while her husband cared for their newborn son at home. He was marveling in the birth of Owen, while exhausting himself in the thoughts of losing the women he loved.

Well, their prayers were answered when only a few days later Stacey received her heart.

But the call was no joke, and within hours, she received a new heart, donated by the family of a 28-year-old man who died suddenly, just one day before his own child was born.

I get chills just thinking about it. Sometimes good does come out of tragedy. Because of the selfless act of this man’s family, a mommy got to celebrate mother’s day!

via 6ABC Philadelphia

Post from: Blisstree

A Hearty Mother’s Day Celebration