I was just cleaning out my junk drawer and found my mouth shield in there🤦🏼‍♀️ A lotta good that would do me if I ever needed it and not only didn’t have it, but had no idea where it was.

But really in all my years of being certified & re-certified, I’ve NEVER encountered anyone in need of rescue.

If we all carried around everything we could possibly need at every given moment for any possible unforeseen need, we’d all be hauling 20 ft long trailers 😆

I’m a minimalist and everywhere I go I bring as little as possible. Sometimes I bring nothing at all with me places I go. I really prefer to travel lightly.

  • Bluetreefrog@lemmy.worldMEnglish
    1·
    2 months ago

    The latest first aid guidelines in Australia say to do EAR, but my employer’s training was to use a non rebreather and oxygen therapy with no breaths. Maybe that’s an advanced resuscitation thing. I think it dropping breaths happened during Covid.

    A recent heart attack I was at where I worked on the patient with the ambulance (outside of work) also didn’t do breaths.

  • philpo@feddit.org
    1·
    2 months ago

    Funny enough: I am not CPR certified.

    But on the other hand I am a critical care paramedic,so there is that.

    Privately I carry fuck all. Basically every car has a first aid kit so I can get gloves from there if needed. If I am a bystander somewhere I won’t need more then my hands. The main goal of CPR are chest compressions - ventilations aren’t urgently needed and by then the chances that someone with a first aid kit or a first responder turning up is high. Stop the bleed is something else, there you need stuff and training, but luckily that’s not really a topic here.

    Only difference is in my car, I do carry stuff there (a BLS kit including an AED) as we are part of a first responder app network - dispatch can deploy up to 3 off duty medical personnel/first responders (from paramedics, firies, cops, nurses, doctors, medical technicians, etc.) that volunteer for this in additon to the regular units. (ALS+BLS ambulance, ALS+ response vehicle) This way people fairly close by respond - mosf of my cases are within 500m.

    BTW’ These app based responder projects exist almosf worldwide and often they are open for everyone who is CPR certified. And if they aren’t they still need donations, if your region hasn’t one pester your politicans why no Because they are literally the biggest step in survival since defibrillation was.introduced prehospitally. Yes,that big.

    And they are bloody cheap.

    TLDR? Do compressions. Learn to “stop the bleed”. Join a App based responder programm.

      • FistingEnthusiast@lemmynsfw.comEnglish
        1·
        2 months ago

        There’s plenty of air being moved with compression, and the unfortunate reality is that lots of air just gets blown into the stomach anyway, and the vomit created isn’t helpful

  • infinitevalence@discuss.onlineEnglish
    1·
    2 months ago

    Afaik the breathing requirement has been mostly removed and it’s all about compressions. To quote my instructor “hard, deep, fast”

    • ethaver@kbin.earth
      1·
      2 months ago

      I got (lovingly) hollered at in the last mock code for pausing to let the respiratory therapist ventilate. things have evolved so much these days. After my round I went back to my true calling and walked the demented guy back to his room.

      Honestly even in the event of a code on my unit with my own patient 90% of my job after the first round of compressions is just providing history to the intensivist anyway. My last stroke code I mostly just stood in the corner repeating that the patient didn’t typically exaggerate or present somatically so this had to be real.

      Honestly most of my job in a code not on my patient is probably going to turn out being environmental and crowd control as well, making sure the real code team has what they need where they need it and everybody else is out of the way and all the background safety stuff is still happening.

      That said even with modern evidence demoting respirations this picture still goes hard asf:

      altr

    • x4740N@lemmy.world
      1·
      2 months ago

      Huh, I was taught 30 compressions, 2 breaths with the head lying to the side to avoid obstructions in my senior years in high school and I’m gen z so this is fairly recent but I also live in Australia

      Did they just remove the breath requirement in america?

  • brygphilomena@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    0·
    2 months ago

    My certification expired a while back. I have some of those keychain sized shields in most of my backpacks and travel bags. And a large shield in my actual first aid bag.

    The one time I did have to do CPR was at a house party and an elderly man collapsed and fell into the pool. I went from very black out drunk to doing compressions until EMS arrived. I will never forget the gurgling of the water in the back of his throat when I gave rescue breaths. I didn’t have a mask, and it didn’t matter because trying to save his life overrode any concerns of him coughing or vomiting.

    While waiting for EMS and performing CPR, one drunk guy literally pulled me off him and said “give him some air!” And all I could think was “that’s literally what I was doing.” When EMS arrived, they took over CPR and I took on keeping the man’s daughter away while they tried to resuscitate him. The other people there kept saying things like “he’ll be okay” and I kept having to physically hold her back as her dad died right in front of her. I was telling her that we had to let the paramedics do their job and “they’re doing everything they can for him.” I knew not to say anything that would give her false hope.

    Sadly, he passed away. I remember hearing he died the next day, after the family was able to say good bye. So I don’t know if they were able to restart his heart or not or get him on life support.

    After the paramedics took him away, I overheard the guy that pulled me off him was going to take CPR classes so he’d know what to do in that situation. Well, first of all, don’t fuck with the guy that does.

    Anyway, I hope you never do have to perform CPR, but it’s great that you took the time to get certified and recertified. If you do need it, it’s reassuring to know that you’ll be prepared. I was prepared for breaking ribs, but not for the gurgling sound during breathes. It’s the one thing that’s really stuck with me. And even though the man I assisted passed, I never felt any guilt or regret because I knew that I had the knowledge of what to do and that I did everything that I was able to do to give him the best chance at surviving.

    • philpo@feddit.org
      2·
      2 months ago

      Hey mate, Critical care paramedic for almost a quarter of a century here.

      You did fucking great. Seriously, tipping my head here.

      Why?

      • You started CPR despite being in a huge crowd. That alone takes some braveness - trias on nurses (!) showed that they had issues with it.

      • You seemed to done a stellar job despite having alcohol as your situational awareness was still there. Great job.

      • You continued despite interference. (That is the number 1 reasons my trainees fail their exams - and the drunk know it better is a very common scenario)

      • You did mouth to nose/mouth to a unknown person post drowning. Honestly? I wouldn’t. You did. Mad respect.

      The fact that it didn’t work out and he died is none of your fault. Even with bystander CPR being present an extremely low percentage of people survive, even less without permanent damage. One reason one must not forget is the fact that it takes a lot for a heart to stop. A fuckton. We have a multitude of redundancies build in. Sinus node is fucked? Take the AV. Etc. So the chances that there was an issue that was uncorrectable is extremely high. And water,well,makes everything twice as hard. (Truth to be told I never resuscitated a person post drowning/immersion successfully)

      To boil it down to a single sentence: The patient is the one who started it.

      What you are responsible for is the fact that he had a chance and had another day- it means his heart was beating at some point but the damage was done. You have contributed the biggest part to restarting it (seriously, all our ALS paramedic shenanigans are worthless without bystander CPR) and therefore gave him a chance and gave the family time. (And gave a third person a chance for an organ potentially)

  • Kennystillalive@feddit.org
    0·
    2 months ago

    In Switzerland you have to get a certificate to make your driving license and are required to have a first aid kit in your car. If you get stopped by the cops and they find the kit in your car is expired or is not to the norms you can get a fine.

    What I carry most of the time with me is a Kinder-Egg capsule with latex gloves. I have them im all my bags. (You can get fucked real bad if you touch a bleeding person with your bare hands. A small cut on your hands is enough for the nastiests illness to be tranfered. At the course for certificate they made sure to tell us all about the risks.)

    Also as far as I know in Switzerland, if you fail to help someone you can get can get in trouble with the law. It goes from a small fine to up to 3 years in jail.

  • otter@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    0·
    2 months ago

    Might be worth looking into why so many medical professionals have a DNR… 🤷🏼‍♂️

    • philpo@feddit.org
      1·
      2 months ago

      Well, most people I know have a “don’t bother unless I get bystander CPR/it’s witnessed”. Because then you absolutely got a chance in most regions of the world.

    • chunes@lemmy.world
      0·
      2 months ago

      Are “cpr-certified” people trained to look for and respect medical bracelets? And will they remember that part of their training, if so? One of my worse fears is being manhandled by one of these people

      • philpo@feddit.org
        1·
        2 months ago

        No. And even medical professionals won’t look for one before CPR starts.

        Simply because there isn’t time.

        Once the scene is established it’s a different deal and of course it can be a different deal when someone advises us or a condition is clearly showing. (And additionally in all jurisdictios I worked so far a medical bracelet does not constitute a binding DNR)