Save a Life Doc?

Ok, you are probably going to have raised an eyebrow by now.  Good.  You doctors are trained to help people and save lives and we all know this, but what about the rest of your office staff?  Patients don’t come to your office because they feel good.  Heck, if they’re as bad as me, they won’t show up until they are dying or practically dead.  That being the case, are your staff trained as first responders?  When minutes count can they act until you can be grabbed or reached to help?  How about an AED machine?  Do you have one in your office?  Is it easy and quick to get to from the front or from one of your exam rooms?  You care about your patients enough to be there long hours every day; do you care enough to make sure your whole office is prepared to assist you in your work?

Having just successfully completed my CPR/AED/First Aid course, I wanted to share some statistics and information with you.  Maybe you’ll decide that caring is sharing and being prepared for more than just meaningful use and ICD-10 is important.  Some vital skills everyone should know (that you will learn in class) are rescue breaths, rescue breathing, CPR, AED Defibrillator use, choking (not how to- how to fix!), and first aid goodies like how to take care of cuts, burns, breaks, and other emergencies. 

Sure, the patients are in your office and you are working on fixing them, but what happens if there is an emergency, or a multiple trauma situation?  No, I know you’re not a hospital, but you are still a first line caregiver.  Is 1-30 minutes of possible action worth 8-12 hours of training time (with some additional time to keep updated every year)?  Is a patient or staff member's life worth a $1500 AED machine?  How would your staff feel if they could help save someone, even their own family members?  How would your staff feel if they could do nothing but watch?

A Little History

• Mouth-to-mouth resuscitation goes back to 1740 when the Paris Academy of Sciences officially recommended it for drowning victims. H2
• Dr. Friedrich Maass performed the first equivocally documented chest compression in humans in 1891. H2
• The world's first mass citizen CPR training wasn’t until 1972, when Leonard Cobb held one in Seattle, Washington.  It was called Medic 2 and he helped train over 100,000 people the first two years of the programs. H2
• Operated assisted CPR became a standard 911/dispatcher practice in 1981. H2

Some Statistics?

• Less than eight percent of people who suffer cardiac arrest outside the hospital survive. H1
• Less than one-third of out-of-hospital sudden cardiac arrest victims receive bystander CPR. H1
• Effective bystander CPR, provided immediately after sudden cardiac arrest, can double or triple a victim’s chance of survival. H1
• About 5,900 children 18 years old and under suffer out-of-hospital cardiac arrest each year from all causes – including trauma, cardiovascular causes and sudden infant death syndrome. H1
• At least one child dies from choking on food every five days in the U.S., and more than 10,000 children are taken to a hospital emergency room each year for food-choking injuries. (according to the NYS Department of Health) BE
• Accidental injuries, including choking and drowning, are the leading cause of death in children and send over 16 million kids a year to the emergency room. BE
• Sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) kills over 900 adults each day in the USA. That is about 335,000 of the 550,000 annual deaths from coronary heart disease. CD
• Around 75% of cardiac arrests happen in people's homes so you will probably perform CPR on a family member or friend. CD
• There is yet to be a documented case of HIV being transmitted due to performing CPR. CD, BE

Do you ever wonder if having those small AED boxes at work, school, or church matter (or are worth the $1000-$5000 you pay for them)?  
Here are a couple of statistics from the Red Cross First  and our teacher:

• For every second that AED is delayed in a cardiac arrhythmia emergency the patient’s chances of survival are reduced by about 10%.  So, if it takes you five minutes to get and use the AED, you’ve already reduced your patient’s chance of survival by 50%.  Wow!  Does that give you the chills?  It gave them to me. 
• AED use has upped cardiac emergency survival by about 70%.  Again- Wow, worth it!

See how fast “it” can happen and how effective AED is…. for a 12 year old girl!

Are you concerned or even pumped up now?  Good.  
Here’s what to do about it.


Go forth.  Get your staff trained and be proud of your partners in office patient care.  You are adding value for your patients, to your office, and to your trained staffs’ lives.  Save a life, Doc!

Informational Links for more of the above:
H1 American Heart Association statistics 
H2 American Heart Association CPR history 
BE B.E. CPR statistics 
CD CPR Dude statistics  
     American Red Cross