3 ms·
[My First Aid training tells me that] although brain death occurs in just a few minutes once the brain ceases to get oxygen supplied to it, if CPR is applied to
by Pistos2 16y ago
[My First Aid training tells me that] although brain death occurs in just a few minutes once the brain ceases to get oxygen supplied to it, if CPR is applied to a casualty, and the casualty can get in an ambulance and into a hospital within an hour or so (the "Golden Hour"), he or she stands a decent chance of surviving. The CPR would provide some oxygen to the brain and the rest of the body (while the ambulance makes its way to the scene), so if you can bring the casualty to shore within 2 or 3 minutes of them going unconscious, there's still reason for optimism.
As such, I would say it's not unreasonable to wait for the drowning person to lose consciousness if you aren't confident you could prevent or deal with him or her dragging you down.
- JshWright 16y agoThe "Golden Hour" refers to the time it should take to get a trauma patient to a surgical table. The odds of a (non-hypothermic) cardiac arrest patient being viable after an hour are slim to none. However, the good news is that drownings are one of the few times where Hollywood-style CPR "Do a couple rounds and they wake up" can occur. Their heart stopped beating because it stopped getting oxygen, not due to some other type of damage. So if you do CPR for a little while and get their heart oxygenated again, it can start back up in its own (most pools nowadays have an AED as well)