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I don't want to be overly mean, but just look at the statistics. Those cases are far and few between. I have myself CPRed more than 50 people in my previous car

I don't want to be overly mean, but just look at the statistics. Those cases are far and few between. I have myself CPRed more than 50 people in my previous career. For all I know not a single one was able to walk out of the hospital - and the majority was declared dead on the scene. YMMV based mainly on country (and hence willingness / ability of the general population to deliver quality CPR) In most cases, when the patient "survives" this means that he is disabled (can not eat, can not walk, can not stand, can not do anything)

rcfox 13y ago
That fact that can happen sometimes implies that it is possible to create paramedic equipment to determine the correct rate to do the CPR and apply cooling in order to get optimal results. I would not want to be the one that has to procure the ethical clearances for the development though!
- lucaspiller 13y ago
  I would guess it is also a learning thing as well, given this research doctors shouldn't be so quick to declare death. Take this story where the doctor recommended life support be switched off, but she woke up three days later.
- famo 13y ago
  Flatliners! http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0099582/ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0099582/
Houshalter 13y ago
The point is that it is possible, not common. Which is incredible that the brain can go so long without oxygen and then fully recover, and that we may someday have the technology to revive people better or more often. Think if you somehow had a machine that could revive and keep someone's brain alive regardless of how injured the rest of their body was. And if you had a whole hour or more to get to them. Not that it's likely to come around anytime soon, but still.
- hiddenfeatures 13y ago
  Yeah. It is basically a "think big"-story
- XorNot 13y ago
  For that we really need a mass-producible synthetic blood substitute. The holy grail is if someone suffers major damage, we put them on a continuous supply of the stuff until we can sew up all the holes, and then we get to work growing them some replacement clone organs in a lab with 3D printers.
- toomuchtodo 13y ago
  Step 1: Determine the physiological process that causes the brain to go into a safing mode during severe/near death trauma. Step 2: Figure out how to duplicate it with either environmental (temperature) or chemical (compound) factors.
swombat 13y ago
One of my colleague's mother had cardiac arrest, received CPR right away (she was at the dinner table), and is fine now. While this is anecdotal, it shows that perhaps the people you gave CPR to were very unlucky. Alternatively, it might be due to the delay before the CPR starts. If you're a first responder, you're probably too late unless the person had someone right next to her capable of administering CPR.
- mikecsh 13y ago
  It's more that your colleague's mother was very lucky rather, than those mentioned by the GP were very unlucky.
  - swombat 13y ago
    She was lucky because there was someone who could administer CPR sitting right next to her when she went into cardiac arrest. They were unlucky because the first CPR they received was from the paramedics.
- objclxt 13y ago
  Somebody already posted this link, but didn't actually expand or summarise it, so here goes: Radiolab did a podcast a few months ago[1] which looked at a John Hopkins survey of doctors that has been going on for decades now. 90% of all doctors surveyed said they would not want to be given CPR as a life saving intervention. In TV and film, CPR is shown as being highly effective - well over 50%. But in reality, CPR can have a survival rate as low as 2%. The best survival rate I could find was 30%, which is where CPR is given immediately by a trained first aider. And that's the survival rate - the majority of people who survive CPR are unable to live normal lives, and may require medical care for life. And that is not to say that people don't make complete recoveries and live long lives after CPR - it's just that the odds are overwhelmingly against them. It's telling that doctors would prefer not to receive CPR. [1]: http://www.radiolab.org/blogs/radiolab-blog/2013/jan/15/bitter-end/ http://www.radiolab.org/blogs/radiolab-blog/2013/jan/15/bitt...
  - jessriedel 13y ago
m2mapps 13y ago
Maybe you were doing it wrong?

rcfox 13y ago

That fact that can happen sometimes implies that it is possible to create paramedic equipment to determine the correct rate to do the CPR and apply cooling in order to get optimal results. I would not want to be the one that has to procure the ethical clearances for the development though!

lucaspiller 13y ago
I would guess it is also a learning thing as well, given this research doctors shouldn't be so quick to declare death. Take this story where the doctor recommended life support be switched off, but she woke up three days later.
famo 13y ago
Flatliners! http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0099582/ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0099582/

Houshalter 13y ago

The point is that it is possible, not common. Which is incredible that the brain can go so long without oxygen and then fully recover, and that we may someday have the technology to revive people better or more often. Think if you somehow had a machine that could revive and keep someone's brain alive regardless of how injured the rest of their body was. And if you had a whole hour or more to get to them. Not that it's likely to come around anytime soon, but still.

hiddenfeatures 13y ago
Yeah. It is basically a "think big"-story
XorNot 13y ago
For that we really need a mass-producible synthetic blood substitute. The holy grail is if someone suffers major damage, we put them on a continuous supply of the stuff until we can sew up all the holes, and then we get to work growing them some replacement clone organs in a lab with 3D printers.
toomuchtodo 13y ago
Step 1: Determine the physiological process that causes the brain to go into a safing mode during severe/near death trauma. Step 2: Figure out how to duplicate it with either environmental (temperature) or chemical (compound) factors.

swombat 13y ago

One of my colleague's mother had cardiac arrest, received CPR right away (she was at the dinner table), and is fine now. While this is anecdotal, it shows that perhaps the people you gave CPR to were very unlucky. Alternatively, it might be due to the delay before the CPR starts. If you're a first responder, you're probably too late unless the person had someone right next to her capable of administering CPR.

mikecsh 13y ago
It's more that your colleague's mother was very lucky rather, than those mentioned by the GP were very unlucky.
- swombat 13y ago
  She was lucky because there was someone who could administer CPR sitting right next to her when she went into cardiac arrest. They were unlucky because the first CPR they received was from the paramedics.
objclxt 13y ago
Somebody already posted this link, but didn't actually expand or summarise it, so here goes: Radiolab did a podcast a few months ago[1] which looked at a John Hopkins survey of doctors that has been going on for decades now. 90% of all doctors surveyed said they would not want to be given CPR as a life saving intervention. In TV and film, CPR is shown as being highly effective - well over 50%. But in reality, CPR can have a survival rate as low as 2%. The best survival rate I could find was 30%, which is where CPR is given immediately by a trained first aider. And that's the survival rate - the majority of people who survive CPR are unable to live normal lives, and may require medical care for life. And that is not to say that people don't make complete recoveries and live long lives after CPR - it's just that the odds are overwhelmingly against them. It's telling that doctors would prefer not to receive CPR. [1]: http://www.radiolab.org/blogs/radiolab-blog/2013/jan/15/bitter-end/ http://www.radiolab.org/blogs/radiolab-blog/2013/jan/15/bitt...
- jessriedel 13y ago

m2mapps 13y ago

Maybe you were doing it wrong?