Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation and the New Revelation

[Jim]

But if the cells are still alive, why can't doctors revive someone who has been dead for an hour? Because once the cells have been without oxygen for more than five minutes, they die when their oxygen supply is *resumed*.

Docs Change the Way They Think About Death - Newsweek Health

[maclinda]

Wow! That's just fascinating. As a former ER doc, those dismal figures on current survival are so true.

[Jim]

Originally Posted by maclinda

Wow! That's just fascinating. As a former ER doc, those dismal figures on current survival are so true.

Maclinda, I've honestly never understood why anyone would come out of a heart attack alive. Assuming that it would at least take them 20 minutes to get to the hospital, prep time, etc, can anyone receive care in time before it's too late?

[RT Wolf]

I'm getting a page not found error?

Interesting, though.

[Jim]

Originally Posted by RT Wolf

I'm getting a page not found error?

Interesting, though.

Strange. I updated the above link and it should be working properly again.

[Shamou]

Originally Posted by Jim

Maclinda, I've honestly never understood why anyone would come out of a heart attack alive. Assuming that it would at least take them 20 minutes to get to the hospital, prep time, etc, can anyone receive care in time before it's too late?

What is know as heart attack is a partial blockage of one of the coronary artery (they supply the heart muscle itself with blood) thus depriving a part of the heart muscle of blood... but the heart itself is still beating... therefore the patient's body still receives blood and can be kept alive...

For more info... see this article...

.

[RT Wolf]

Thanks for updating hte link. A very interesting read. The question I have to ask is how is that rate of recovery compared to the regular procedure? The article didn't seem to mention it or I missed it. I'm also curious to know how quickly the new procedure can be tested extensively and actually be able to be implemented in hospitals.

[maclinda]

The rate of recovery in the study is far better than methods we're currently using.

I think rather than heart attack, as mentioned above, you may mean cardiac arrest (when the heart is not beating at all, or is not beating in such a way as to pump blood).

Unwitnessed cardiac arrest, in or out of the hospital, has a very grim prognosis. A witnessed arrest, with a prompt (as in seconds, not minutes) determination of the rhythm, has a better outcome, but still generally poor.

You see, if you have a problem severe enough to stop the heart, it's going to be very hard to correct that problem quickly enough. The heart is a really dependable workhorse kind of muscle, but it has its limits.

[escapee]

A significant breakthrough in trauma intervention ? ... simply amazing.

a "cardioplegic" blood infusion to keep the heart in a state of suspended animation. Patients were put on a heart-lung bypass machine to maintain circulation to the brain until the heart could be safely restarted. The study involved just 34 patients, but 80 percent of them were discharged from the hospital alive. In one study of traditional methods, the figure was about 15 percent.