A Bumpy Ride

An interesting case is reported in the UK press today.

A 65 year old man was exercising on his cross-trainer at home when his HR increased to 195 bpm and he had severe chest pain.

His wife called an ambulance which hit an enormous pothole in the road during the 5 mile ride to the hospital. The whole ambulance jolted , the patient was carefully lifted off the stretcher by the very concerned paramedics who noticed from the monitor that his HR had rapidly dropped to 60 bpm.

The doctors kept him in hospital for 3 days before sending him home. They reckoned that he had had a ventricular arrhythmia and the jolt saved him from having a procedure of stopping his heart with an injection then re-starting it with a shock !

So if ever it happens to you, make sure the ambulance takes the bumpiest route possible to the hospital e.g. persuade the driver to have the odd collision en - route , run over the neighbour's cat or even over the neighbour if you don't get on well.

Cheers

Ian

12 Comments

Olden Days

by Alma Annie - 2013-07-05 07:07:43

In the very 'olden days' that is when I was nursing in the 60's, thumping a patients chest for heart block, and also for fast heart rate, was the 'thing' to do, as ordered by the cardios in an emergency. It seemed to work until other strategies were put in place.

As for the law of gravity; I remember when I was 3 years old my mother tipping me upside down, holding me by my feet, and thumping my back to dislodge something I was choking on. It worked.

Alma Annie

Ian, Sounds Like a...

by donr - 2013-07-05 09:07:12

...Precordial Thump to me! And that has been relegated to the Ash Heap of emergency procedures in the US, anyway.

Sometimes we leave all common sense behind.

I can recall while being certified for first aid for heart attacks/stopped breathing , etc, the "Thump" was the first thing performed if the victim was in VTach of V-Fib. Followed by fast, continuous sternum pressure & breathing assistance. (wish I could remember all the appropriate terms for what we did) These were the early days of the Heimlich (or is it hind lick - for Texans) maneuver.

I had an opportunity to witness the Heimlich Maneuver from inside the bear-hugging arms of the surgeon wife of a college roommate & can attest to its efficacy. She, incidentally, at that point had had three opportunities to use it in restaurants.

Ah, but the decisions we must make sometimes as to what to do in emergencies - decisions that perhaps go counter to protocol of the professionals. Believe it is called "Muddy Ditch Medicine" among Army Medics.

Our #2 son was born w/ what was called an uncoordinated swallowing mechanism (Never heard of it before him). At age 3 or 4 months, Wife was starting him on juice of some sort & one AM while the family was milling around in its normal confusion at breakfast, Son suddenly had an attack of whatever he had. Coughing, choking violently & really in distress. Wife Yelled for me while other rug rats, ages 10, 9, 8 watched, transfixed as if suddenly cast in plaster. Son's eyes rolled back in his head, he arched his back rigidly & suddenly went limp & stopped breathing. Being a small tyke. I invoked the law of gravity - which I had absolute confidence in working - grabbed him by the feet & turned him upside down (like an eviscerated turkey being prepped for Thanksgiving dinner) & smacked him on the upper shoulder area to get out of his airway whatever was clogging it. Grabbed his head & administered some mouth-to mouth breathing to him and w/in a few seconds, he started breathing again, became less flacid & started squalling. All this while hanging upside down.

Took him to see a pediatrician shortly thereafter to discuss his problem. I was severely berated for my actions - I might have forced something into his lungs - or inflated him so hard that I caused a lung to rupture - I should have waited till we could get professional help. I looked the Dr. in the eyes & asked him directly - "Oh, & you can resurrect the dead?" The silence that followed was deafening!

Same said Son is today in his 40's & the picture of health. But for about two years, wife would not feed him without me being there. At that point, he stopped the spontaneous choking act.

Just thinking out loud.

Don

A bumpy road or...

by golden_snitch - 2013-07-05 11:07:45

... you just ask the paramedics to shove the stretcher down a staircase! That way you'd not even need to go to the hospital :)

On a different note, Ian, what do you think about a German tennis player making it into the Wimbledon final? :) It was about time, last one was Steffi Graf back in the 1990's...

Best wishes
Inga

Small world

by DonF - 2013-07-05 11:07:48

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2355860/Ray-Lee-65-speaks-pothole-reset-heart-rushed-hospital.html

He was going to Salisbury General Hospital where I had my PM put in last week.

There was a guy called Ray opposite me who looked the same, but I think he had a PM out in too.

If I need to be rushed back in to hospital, I can guarantee we will hit some monster pot holes so should be fine!

Golden

by golden_snitch - 2013-07-05 12:07:35

Ian, when I made up that username Harry Potter was VERY popular. Although I knew that "snitch" has a not so nice connotation in American English, I just didn't have that on my mind back then. When it finally occured to me that this might not be the best username, I couldn't change it. So, now that I read about the site renovations and that we would soon be able to change our username, I gave it a try - and it worked! :)

Oh, and because of the many answers I have provided here and the many years I've been a member, I think I deserve a "golden status", don't I? ;) You should probably all update yourself to golden members!

Can you believe that Germans can watch the Wimbledon final on Pay TV only? I'm mad! Public-service broadcasting tried to buy the broadcasting rights, but no chance. So, I might have to go to a pub at 3 p.m. to see it...

Inga

Hmmmmmm

by IAN MC - 2013-07-05 12:07:50

donr ... I think I'd rather have Inga's staircase treatment than face you're Army medic manoeuvres !

Inga ... or do we call you "golden_inga" now ? . What suddenly turned you into a golden girl ??

I think it's great that we have a German lady v a French
lady in the final. Lisicki's smile when she knocked out Serena Williams was really memorable.

On the subject of tennis , what is going wrong with the Americans and Australians .. Wimbledon is an all European affair ??? ( a bit like the Ryder cup in the golf world !! )

I think the Americans are too busy celebrating " Independence Day" to perfect their sporting skills ...whilst it was a great film I don't they should have a holiday to celebrate it !

DonF If ever I get ventricular arrhythmia I will insist that the ambulance driver heads for Salisbury General Hospital; I will mention your name when I get there !

Best wishes

Ian




IAN.............

by Tattoo Man - 2013-07-06 02:07:59


........................and ,..LO,..the World has replied.......

When it comes to Life and Death opinions,..for me ..I will put myself in the 'Muddy Ditch' with Don.

Some old tricks still work....

Like ,me, going all Goo-Goo this afternoon when a Spitfire cruised over my place, here in the UK during the RAF Waddington airshow.

Forgive my sentimentality, but I quote an old 'Spit' pilot,..who said.."you never had differences with your fellow fliers, when you knew that,..you just might not ever see them again"

Seize the moment.

Its all that I have...

Tattoo Man

Tattoo Man: What can do more...

by donr - 2013-07-06 04:07:15

,,,for the old soul than the sound of a dozen or so pistons going up & down at a very high rate turning a prop churning the air like an angry banshee?

My personal favorite is an 18 cylinder radial spinning a prop as big as a Dutch windmill - doing a high speed pass down the length of a runway,

Don

Annie: A conundrum...

by donr - 2013-07-06 08:07:27

...Since you live on the antipode from me, when your Mum turned you upside down, you were really rightside up to me. so how did that help? The Devil made me ask.

Don

Tatt Man...Sounds a bit like...

by donr - 2013-07-07 01:07:03

...Nirvana to me.

I spent the last 2 yrs of WW-II living next to a plant building B-29's. My Dad was the MFGR's Rep for Curtiss Wright, the engine mfgr. Day & night, I heard those 18 cylinder engines running up to take off power - 4 at a time. We followed them to Miami, FL, where Dad got a job for an outfit that overhauled engines - his specialty by that time was engine accessories - magnetos, starters, generators. Those engines started showing up on commercial airliners - Constellations, DC 6 & 7's. We lived right under the departure route heading to South & Central America, so I lived w/ them all my growing up yrs.

Two yrs ago I was in a parking lot at a restaurant right off an Interstate Highway (Motorway to you) & what to my wondering eyes should appear but one of those engines, loaded on a trailer, looking forlorn & worn out. A magnificent piece of machinery, reduced to the vagaries of age, wear & tear. As I stood there w/ Mrs. Don, a carload of family drives up. Mom & Dad, two teen aged urchins. They looked at the engine, puzzled that I was worshiping it mouth agape & asked innocently "What is it?" How the Devil do you explain to some one who has never seen one exactly what a catapault is? Or an oxcart? Or an abacus? Or - best of all, a SLIDE RULE?

Tatt - you are rapidly approaching being a cave man. The great unwashed will have no idea what you are talking about. You will be reduced to talking to me - & Ian. No one else will know what the Heck you are talking about.

Frank would approve - & he never flew anything bigger than a Cessna!

But the sound all my Grunt friends of the 60's still love most is the Wop, Wop, Wop, Wop, Wop, Wop, Wop, Wop, Wop, Wop, of a UH-1 coming to pick them up from some Hell hole in the jungle.

Don

Absolutely No Apologies To.................

by Tattoo Man - 2013-07-07 05:07:15


..............all those who have

1...No idea what is going on here

2...Dont care what is going on here

3...An idea that PM Club is only about people with PM problems

So..back to the plot.....Don..

A big yes to Boeing,..Curtiss-Wright,..slide rules,..Archimedes,..and Newton, born just 20 minutes down the A1 from where I live in Woolsthorpe..a lovely place to visit, with prisms and stuff to play with. Newton was schooled at Kings Grantham, and I have seen his name scratched into his desk,..and ..naughty boy..onto a window.

Don...your show stopper is the 'Wop Wop Wop'....

From the fun and games that we share, here, in PMC..life in the theatre of war will always be a vile place,..inhabited in the main by wonderful, truly fit individuals, who give thier all for ideals worth dying for.

For those of us who know these people..for me,..humility is the emotion.

Yes ,.some of us are heading back to the caves..

But..for those with the deep feelings..the B29..the Spitfire,..the Euorofighter,..the Wop..Wop..Wop.

And the smell of Cordite..

Tattoo Man ,.. with a tear in the eye for all who have, before, smelt the very scent of death or victory


Don..................

by Tattoo Man - 2013-07-07 12:07:16


...................who could disagree with you..........but....

Who can resist the brutal majesty of the Typhoon Eurofighter converting a low pass into an instant vertical climb and becoming invisible within 25 seconds in a clear sky...leaving,...a bit like the Cheshire Cat,...nothing but the great big grins of the spectators,...the crying of the children and the orchestra of car alarms that have been set off............

And what of The Vulcan,..demonstrating that it can climb like a mountain goat and turn tighter than a London Cab.

Above me I have on a regular basis the AWACS...Eurofighters..Battle of Britain Flight and...the Red Arrows.

Bliss !

Tattoo Man......I dedicate this little posting to Frank.

You know you're wired when...

You forecast electrical storms better than the weather network.

Member Quotes

The experience of having a couple of lengths of wire fed into your heart muscle and an electronic 'box' tucked under the skin is not an insignificant event, but you will survive.