Guy who got knocked out at Blacks comes back to life and talks about the wipe out. For those who quote the Bear and say "You're always alone out there..." I beg to differ. Without the other guys in the line-up, this guy was a goner...
For a second, I thought that said "black surfer" and was like "IT'S ABOUT FUCKING TIME"
30 and 2. 30 and 2. That's the only thing I remember about CPR, but it's amazing that it works.
I heard 100 beats a minute is the right compression interval, the same beat as the song Another One Bites the Dust and Stayin Alive.
In other news, this is why I try to be nice to people in the lineup. They might be the next guy saving my life!
the ratio 30 compressions to 2 breaths is correct, and the compressions should be at 100 beats per minute, with a compression depth of a couple inches. you might feel some ribs break, but don't stop because broken bones are secondary to being dead.
the new school of thought, though, is that there is enough dissolved oxygen in the blood to render the breaths less important. the compressions keep the brain perfused, so if you're one person trying to save another focus more on compressions-- make sure you start immediately, and make sure they're adequate. if you have the luxury of two people, have the second rescuer focus on keeping the airway open and delivering the two breaths. the second rescuer can also check for pulses to confirm that the compressions are successfully pushing blood around.
with near drownings CPR is incredibly successful (something like 50% chance of person coming back compared to 1 in 64,000 with dying people in general) so if you have the time and 50 bucks, it might be worthwhile to take a class. anyone out there a certified CPR instructor? i know a couple... maybe we could organize a group class if there's interest.
also, can we just talk about how awesome it is that the lifeguard recognized the situation, and caught a wave in to help? i wish i could align my surfing and emergency skills like that. that borders superheroics.
ive been looking around for a CPR class to take, would be cool to take with other surfers.
Yeah, I'd like to learn CPR and improve my surfing so I can be like this hunk: http://surfboards.com/surfing/2010/02/water-polo-player-saves-life-at-be...
@vegansurfer: considering the odds you listed, it seems like getting more surfers trained would be a more than worthwhile endeavor.
@vegansurfer & @tracey great idea. Let me make some inquiries. May be able to tailor a class just for water-people. Meanwhile: http://www.redcrossbayarea.org/class_result.asp?SN=4979&OP=5528&IDCapitu... They have done free classes in the past.
I nominate Tracey to be the crash test dummy so we can all make out with her under the guise of learning mouth to mouth. :)
I'm sorry I missed the Surf Rescue & CPR classes they held in Half Moon Bay a couple years ago:
http://www.surfpulse.com/2008/05/surf-rescue-and-cpr-classes-in-half-moo...
When I asked last summer, there were no plans to do it again, but maybe if we got enough people together...
Kooktastic, let me know when that might be. I have a tasty garlic, onion, and jalapeno soup I've been dying to eat several gallons of prior to coming anywhere near you. ;)
March is Red Cross month, so contact your local Red Cross, www.redcross.org for CPR lessons. Often they offer them free on weekends in a 4 hour class. Good to know basic First Aid too.
It's not a show until simple chronic halitosis enters.
Wait, I have CHRONIC jalapeno breath?! Why didn't someone tell me. Jeeze. Sorry fellow dawn patrollers. :(
A perk to teaching HS and coaching is that I have to get re-certified every year. I think CPR certification is an extremely wortwhile way to spend a weekend afternoon, and would love to know that more surfers are certified. I hope to see this happen, stoked for the enthusiasm for it.
I think Surfergrrrl has the right of it.. I wonder if we can get a repeat of the surf rescue & CPR class..
I took lessons from a guy who took that and had all these cool ways to do board rescues...
Hmm who to contact...
i just talked to one of my firefighter friends who is a certified CPR instructor about doing a CPR/surf rescue class and he's interested. i am (almost) a paramedic and could put together the material for the surf rescue part of it, since that wouldn't require any certification. i have another surfer/almost paramedic friend who would likely be interested as well. unless people also want to get first aid certs, which would be more difficult since i don't know any instructors.... it might be worthwhile to convince HMB fire to offer the course again, though, because they probably have the dummies, backboards, etc.
@vegansurfer: we don't need dummies from HMB fire, we have Tracey.
@Tracey: that's awesome - I've always had a jalapeno and garlic fetish. We're gonna get down! What about the rest of the guys in the class though? Have you thought about them?
I emailed the guy behind the HMB Surf Rescue/CPR class in '08. We'll see what he says about re-offering it.
I thought the CPR success rate was far lower than that if the heart has actually stopped beating - and that defibrillators are the key to starting the heart again. Do you have some references for those stats @vegansurfer? I was a surf lifeguard for a couple summers and essentially they told us CPR without defibs has < 1% chance of success, so all you are doing is trying to keep the blood flowing until defibs get there.
I'm guessing the higher survival stats on drowning recoveries are that the heart has not actually stopped in most of those cases (although the pulse may be very weak), and that clearing the airway and blowing into the lungs triggers the person to spew up some water and start breathing on their own. But I'd love to stand corrected on this - I've never had to do CPR, and it would be nice to be more optimistic about it. As far as I'm aware, if the victim still has a pulse, even a very weak one, you shouldn't attempt chest compressions.
http://www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=4483 and http://www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=4483 state that the main purpose of CPR is to prolong life until defibrillation, but doesn't give any super accurate stats.
Anyway, what this all means is, CPR is not worth much unless you call for help ASAP (before you start the CPR). So call that ambulance right away!
I took a class when we had our first kid. They were blunt: you have to get a heartbeat. No heartbeat, no chance of getting breathing going. Focus on getting the heart pumping and then the breathing will come. Haven't had to use it and hope I never will.
@lee: the chance of success i listed are for CPR without defib-- defib brings survival up much higher. (i cant remember the exact numbers but got them in my wilderness EMT class at SOLO in new hampshire. a lot of cool ocean/diving emergency info). basically CPR alone for general cardiac arrest is useless, and only keeps the body at a half-dead semi-adequately perfused place so that it can be later fully resuscitated with defibrillation and drugs. for near-drownings and cardiac arrest resulting from lightening strikes the survival rate is much higher, i think because the former is due to respiratory arrest (so that the heart is relatively undamaged-- you're probably right that clearing the airway is mostly responsible for people coming back to life) and the latter is because the lightening knocks out the heart's electrical activity (someone correct me-- this is a guess!). you want to start compressions only in pulseless adult patients-- if they have a pulse but aren't breathing, administer rescue breaths once every 6-8 seconds, and make sure to keep the airway open by tilting the head back. in children, compressions are necessary if the pulse rate is below 60 beats per minute. in any case, resuscitation without a defibrillator is difficult and far less successful-- if you don't have one, and someone is dying on you, a strong direct punch to the chest can approximate an electrical restart of the heart. CPR without defib has a general success rate of 1 in 64,000-- there's the <1% stat. maybe i should dig out my notes from that class and find the sources of these numbers-- i generally just keep them kicking around in my head for cocktail party chatter.
