<p>Should you be in the airport- or the hospital ?-</p>
<p>the results might surprise you</p>
<p>[Health</a> | Code blue often too slow, study finds | Seattle Times Newspaper](<a href=“http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/health/2004105047_codeblue03.html]Health”>http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/health/2004105047_codeblue03.html)</p>
<p>I’m not surprised!</p>
<p>People are MUCH MORE LIKELY to die from a heart attack outside of a hospital. CPR done by civilians is rarely successful. Google for multiple articles concerning this issue reported by JAMA. Training of paramedics and firefighters (first responders) also needs improvement. Training with and access to defibrillators are major issues. They are being distributed on college campuses now.</p>
<p>I haven’t googled the other articles, but you might want to note that you’d be noticed on the floor, unresponsive, in an airport, immediately. Or in a casino, a quite popular place for cardiac arrest. In a non critical care hospital bed, you are not surrounded by a crowd. The trend is towards private rooms rather than doubles or wards, where a change would be less quickly noticed. If on a cardiac monitor, you bet we show up fast, defibrillators in hand.</p>
<p>Not the point, Great Lakes Mom, and you know it. People have been reading the Seattle Times Post all day and probably believing it. If you are a person with medical training, you know the statistics as well as me. </p>
<p>I kept quiet about the post until I saw somebody posted an agreement with the article. It could endanger people.</p>
<p>Who cares if you are noticed if no one is around to provide treatment? People that critical in a hospital are rarely left unmonitored. And how long would it take someone to respond in an airport or casino who knew what to do with the correct equipment? Too long!</p>
<p>I’m sure you are familiar with the NY lady who died in an airport on her way to alcohol rehab in Phoenix. Very scary!</p>
<p>however- if you are in an emergency room of a hospital and have signs of a heart attack- which are also the same signs of indigestion- you are not going to see anyone for a while.</p>
<p>The point was- in an airport- there may be defibrillators hanging on the wall- ready for someone to grab and administer-in a hospital- & they have to page someone?</p>
<p>I was in emergency surgery within 15 minutes of having hit the hospital emergency room (maybe sooner - I was too drugged to know.) But in cardiac rehab, I have met patients who were in the emergency rooms in Seattle and Tacoma, and it seems that, usually, their waits were well longer than mine. (I also was a Monday night, not a weekend.)</p>
<p>The local fire department responders in my case were extraordinary - what was especially “exciting” is that they were sending my electrocardiograph to the hospital by wireless in real-time even while we were in transport.</p>
<p>But…my “interesting story for the day”. The woman next to me on a treadmill in cardiac rehab had some pain in her left shoulder and upper arm. The staff got her off the treadmill, and did some monitoring, and were planning to send her upstairs to the hospital itself. But – and this was strange – they couldn’t find a wheelchair, and it took them about 15 minutes to decide whether to place her on stretcher, or continue their search for a chair. It seemed really bizarre to me (though I don’t think she was in great distress.) If the nurses in the cardio-rehab wing of a major hospital can’t find a wheelchair, and don’t have a clear protocol for dealing with what happens if they can’t find them, it does lead one to ask what else they might be missing.</p>
<p>Since D lives with an EMT- I hear all the stories- which are “colorful”</p>
<p>We also had a friend- who was in great shape- in his early 60s- physics prof at the UW, at the doc for a stress test.
Routine.
But they had him push himself too much and he had a stroke and died shortly after.
I don’t think they necessarily ere on side of caution.</p>
<p>Kitty, that is a nice idea that someone might just save you in an airport. However, defibrillator use requires training, and if you are shocked on the wrong part of your cardiac cycle, you can be killed.</p>
<p>They put defibrillators in all the buildings at my son’s college a couple years ago, and then removed them when they realized more advanced training is needed. Big Pharma at work!</p>
<p>Mini, they are missing a lot, no doubt about it! However, like you said, you were in cardiac surgery in mins. Real emergencies aren’t often missed. Best wishes for a speedy
recovery!</p>
<p>Kitty, the Docs err on the side of caution because of malpractice. EMT’s don’t have that concern so much.</p>
<p>I wasn’t talking about the EMT- I was talking about the cardiologist when our friend was having his treadmill test.
I can’t believe that he had zero indication that he was pushed to the limit when he stroked out.</p>
<p>There is also a big movement to place AEDs in schools
[AED4U.com-</a> AED’s in Schools and Information on placing AED’s within public schools](<a href=“http://www.aed4u.com/aeds_in_schools.cfm]AED4U.com-”>http://www.aed4u.com/aeds_in_schools.cfm)
[Project</a> ADAM: A Father’s Wish](<a href=“Home | Children's Wisconsin”>Home | Children's Wisconsin)</p>
<p>“However, defibrillator use requires training, and if you are shocked on the wrong part of your cardiac cycle, you can be killed.”</p>
<p>Defibrillator use does require training, but Automated External Defibrillators might permit persons not trained in ACLS to intervene effectively in cases of “sudden cardiac” death – ventricular fibrillation or pulseless ventricular tachycardia.</p>
<p>yeah, the AED tells you exactly where to place the pads and what to do. there really is no training required.</p>
<p>college campuses? I’ve never even heard of a college kid having a heart attack.</p>
<p>Edit: Nevermind, [College</a> athlete’s heart attack brings cardiac concern to light | Dallas Morning News | News for Dallas, Texas | Texas Regional News](<a href=“http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/texassouthwest/stories/112307dnsponader.2847534.html]College”>http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/texassouthwest/stories/112307dnsponader.2847534.html)</p>
<h1>13</h1>
<p>you might want to read the above links</p>
<p>Nationally, it is estimated that more than 2,000 young people have a sudden cardiac event every year. The loss of the potential to society is staggering. And the national statistics for the adult population are seven times this great. We must find a way to have the Chain of Survival in place in every school and public place. We must put defibrillators in all areas where people gather to learn, to play, to worship, to work and to live. There is proof that if defibrillators are used within the first few minutes of a collapse the survival rate could be as high as 70 percent. Survival rates without early defibrillation are an abysmal 14 percent. We must not lose another young person.</p>
<p>we have two or three AEDs just at our high school.</p>
<p>How does this happen? Are the vast majority of young people who get heart attacks people who were born with heart trouble, and or are morbidly obese?</p>
<p>The former, Vyse. Congenital heart defects or abnormal rhythms are often not noticed in young people until they kill them. A person I know at a school near me suffered that fate, unfortunately.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I know others have commented on this but I want to reiterate, AEDs, the small kit defibrillators hanging on the wall in gyms, airports, malls, are very easy to use. There is no need to worry that you will hurt the person. If you should ever find yourself in the situation, please do not hesitate to use the AED. Waiting for someone with official training is what could kill someone.</p>
<p>If you are admitted to hospital with cardiac symptoms, you should be on a monitored unit, in which case you should receive immediate resuscitation if needed. For those admitted with other illnesses who happen to arrest unmonitored and alone in their rooms, it’s unlikely they’d be found in time for help. Yes, those people would be better off in a public place with a witnessed arrest.</p>
<p>You must live in a third world country.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>
Not at all. THe dangerous understaffing at most hospitals often means that patients who are not acutely ill are barely seen for a full shift. Never let your loved one go it alone in a hospital.</p>
<p>On my second day as a med surg night nurse, a patient coded. When I called the code, the nursing supervisor tried to hand me the clipboard so I could run it because she had paperwork to do & it was almost quitting time. I told her no way, she’d have to supervise me on my very first code. She was furious, but didn’t seem to care about the patient. She just wanted to leave on time. About two weeks later, I was pulled to a cardiac floor, despite having not even seen monitoring strips since nursing classes in school. I insisted that another nurse be in charge of reading my strips before I agreeed to be pulled. Believe me, I could go on & on with real nightmares of what goes on in a hospital, how staffing requirements are ignored & the data fudged, how untrained staff are expected to do complicated procedures…</p>
<p>The AED is the key to survival with resuscitation efforts outside a medical facility. Another important step is to have your kids get EKGs in high school if they are athletes. Those dangerous heart issues don’t show up on standard pediatric exams, and too many young lives have been lost.</p>