Paramedics, Strained In The Hot Zone, Pull Back From CPR
WTF is this BS?
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NEWARK, N.J. — The calls for patients in cardiac arrest came in one after another.
A 39-year-old man, followed by a 65-year-old, whose neighbor called 911 after getting no response when he rang the doorbell. Then a 52-year-old woman’s heart stopped, as did that of a 90-year-old, who had collapsed on her bedroom floor.
The ambulances turned on their sirens and screamed through red lights. But what the paramedics did after rushing to the victims — or more precisely, what they did not do — is a window into how a deadly virus has reshaped emergency medicine. After confirming that the patients’ hearts had flatlined, they declared each of them dead at the scene, without attempting CPR.
Before coronavirus cases hit hard a few weeks ago, John McAleer, a paramedic who responded to the call for the 90-year-old woman, would have begun chest compressions. His partner would have started an IV to administer epinephrine, which acts as a stimulant. They might have used the defibrillator to try to shock her heart back to life.
He would have done this even though studies have found that only about 1% to 3% of people found in her condition can be resuscitated. For that is what emergency workers have been trained to do: make every possible effort to save every life.
Moar here:
https://www.wral.com/paramedics-strained-in-the-hot-zone-pull-back-from-cpr/19092388/