Comments on: Can You Do The Heimlich?

By: Tracy Snell

Tracy Snell — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 04:25:07 +0000

Working as a waiter in college one night a guest started choking. Another waiter rushed over and pulled off a beautiful Heimlich. The now able to speak guest began yelling at that waiter. We just figured he was embarrassed by it all and lashed out.

Regardless, the managers and coworkers all knew the waiter had saved the guys life.

By: Alexis E

Alexis E — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 23:36:37 +0000

I’ve been trained, but I suspect that most medical students have to be. We tend to focus on CPR, but the Heimlich was in there.

I remember that as a pre-teen, I was certified during a babysitting course, along with CPR and other safety procedures.

Tangentially, there’s some very interesting research about CPR that suggests the 30-breath-30 method is not really as good as a 200-breath-200 method, as it turns out that keeping blood pumping to the brain is far more important than breathing air into the lungs (and when you compress the chest correctly, you create a passive vacuum for oxygen anyway). So some of the Emergency crews here have made the switch.

By: Maureen

Maureen — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 19:45:57 +0000

Alson S. Inaba, MD is a pediatric emergency physician at Kapiolani Medical Center for Women and Children in Honolulu. According to a story printed in JEMS Magazine, Dr. Inaba identified a way to keep perfect time while doing CPR on a victim of cardiac arrest.

As it turns out, the Bee Gees’ classic Stayin’ Alive has a beat that’s almost exactly 100 beats per minute – the same rate the American Heart Association recommends for chest compressions during CPR.

The University of Illinois medical school studied the effect the song had on keeping time during CPR. Five weeks after practicing CPR with the song playing on an iPod, doctors at the medical school were able to hum along without the music and keep time just a little bit faster than 100 per minute, which is perfectly fine when we’re talking about chest compressions.

Stayin’ alive,
Stayin’ alive,
Ha…ah…ah…ah
(this part is exactly 100 beats per minute)
Stayin’ a-li-ive
This tip helps rescuers keep the proper rate while doing CPR. Going too slow doesn’t generate enough blood flow, and going too fast doesn’t allow the heart to fill properly between compressions. Humming along with the Bee Gees is one way to stay on track.

For those of you less optimistic folks, Queen’s classic, Another One Bites the Dust, also has the proper beat.

http://firstaid.about.com/od/cprbasics/qt/07_cpr_tips.htm

By: Maureen

Maureen — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 19:41:31 +0000

Regardless of having been certified in the past – everyone needs to retake the class as the rules for how to do CPR for adults has changed in the past year or so. One method is compression only. The rate of compression is easiest done to the rhythm and beat of the disco song “Stay Alive”. There are different rules for children under the age of 8.

By: Harry

Harry — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 13:50:32 +0000

As part of the certification process, you need to learn the legal protections and restrictions of having the cert and of performing the techniques.

See, there’s a really stupid and short-sighted legal issue: if you try to save someone’s life and don’t succeed perfectly, you could be liable for damages.

Moronic, isn’t it?

So when you get your training, make you ask about whethere you’re legally required to assist (for example, EMTs are required to help anyone in distress) and what your legal protections are if you do. Sensible states have Good Samaritan laws which protect people who try to help. Some protect anyone, some protect only people who are certified in the technique they apply. Ideally, get the actual Code reference, to make sure your instructor has it right and it hasn’t changed recently. (The instructor, of course, should be up on recent changes but there’s nothing like checking for yourself.)

And if your jurisdiction doesn’t have a Good Samaritan law, write a letter to your local rep demanding one.