Our primary job is saving lives, but we are also here to provide hope and comfort, and to be present to act in time of need. Showing a family that help was there, that everything possible was done, and then giving them time to gather and say goodbye to a loved one is something to be proud of. It is hard to measure its worth.

I’ve been doing this a long time — 15 years as a medic — and it amazes me how often I find new ways to do things or think about things. I did another cardiac arrest yesterday. Fairly routine. Yet another nursing home hospital bed one legged diabetic dialysis patient pulseless, apneic, CPR in progress, […]

There is another new study out (published in the March 12 Journal of the American Medical Association that may change the way we do CPR, continuing the emphasis on “Minimally Interrupted CPR.” Minimally Interrupted Cardiac Resuscitation for Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest Here the jist of the protocol: This novel approach, aimed at maximizing cerebral perfusion, involves: […]

I came back from a week off the other day and was greeted with a cardiac arrest on my first call and then another arrest the next day. Both codes were asystole, although we managed to get pulses back briefly on the second one. I had my preceptee with me on both calls. He got […]

Many of you may have seen the recent news story about bystander CPR without mouth to mouth. Here’s the link: Web MD Article NY Times(AP): Without Mouth to Mouth CPR Still Works And here’s the study abstract: The Lancet 2007; 369:920-926 Cardiopulmonary resuscitation by bystanders with chest compression only (SOS-KANTO): an observational study BackgroundMouth-to-mouth ventilation […]

Note: I am double posting this on this blog and my capnography blog. When I was at a conference this past year one of the speakers said the data on prehospital intubation is so bad that if EMS had to go before the FDA to get approval to allow medics to intubate, it would be […]

It is during the tail end of a snow storm that has left ten inches in six hours. We are on the way back from the hospital after a call where we had to wade through deep drifts to get to a patient’s farmhouse. The roads are barely plowed. We get called for a 93-year […]

I’m like a kid before Christmas waiting for the new AHA CPR and ECC guidelines to come out. For almost a year I have been following the evidence sheets posted on the Heart Association web site, and nearly everyday in November checked the site for the new guidelines to be posted. When they finally came […]