View Single Post
Old 04-29-2014, 06:23 AM   #20
Jeffrey S
Scraping Paint
 
City: Full-time onboard
Vessel Model: Trawler
Join Date: Oct 2007
Posts: 929
Quote:
Originally Posted by BruceK View Post
and was very persuasive that survival prospects were far better with one, than CPR. I guess he would say that, but I think he`s right.
There are consistent studies showing the same outcomes. For a patient in cardiac arrest (which is what the topic of AED's is really about), if you arrest in a hospital and only receive CPR only, you have a 2.4% chance of survival. If you're outside a hospital, the survival rate drops to 1.6%. Within the reasons for going into cardiac arrest, CPR is quite effective for drowning. But that's not what the typical trawler owner with known or unknown heart disease is worried about.

Add an AED and the numbers change dramatically. Apply an AED within 4 minutes and the survival rate jumps to 75%. This is why there are so many AED's in malls, airports, schools, and boats.

So looking at that data, CPR is a waste of time, right? Except CPR's goal isn't survival. CPR's goal is to stop the clock before 4 minutes. When done properly, you are giving extra time to allow an AED (onboard, from the boat next door, or from a racing ambulance) to be applied. In that role, CPR is critical and will save someone.

It's interesting that in the show ER, 80% of patients receiving CPR coughed and woke up. It just doesn't happen that way.
Jeffrey S is offline   Reply With Quote