Having seen more than one close friend or family member lay in an almost vegative state for a long long time, I don't want to go out that way. Quality of life means everything to me...

I'm sorry that you had to go through that with your loved ones, OBG


Just be careful. One day you make an offhand comment to your wife after seeing someone in a wheelchair "I wouldn't want to live that way." Next thing you know, they're telling her "Well, Mrs. Baldguy, if he recovers at all he'll be confined to a wheelchair, but if we just give him a little extra morphine..." A lot of people are in wheelchairs and very happy to be alive at all. I bet a lot of them once said "I'd never want to live that way."

I told my wife I don't ever want her to have to make that kind of decision. I instructed her to tell them to transplant my brain into a jar of nutrient solution if necessary.

Wheelchair I could live with...

I just took the St. John Ambulance basic first aid with CPR C (+ AED) over the weekend.

Their method/technique is currently 30 compressions + 2 breaths for all casualties needing chest compressions (CPR or restricted airway) regardless of age. The only difference is the technique used for infants of course where you use 2 fingers instead of 2 hands for chest compressions.

The instructor wasn't allowed to comment on the new breathless style despite our curiousity as a group of students. For now, I'll be doing it as trained and have already picked up a pocket mask with a one way filter.

"...30 compressions + 2 breaths..."

I wonder what happened to 15:2 and 5:1???

I guess they changed it to make it easier...she wouldn't really talk about that either...just that it's changed and that this is the right way.

I suspect AEDs have a lot to do with it. If you have an AED, you just go nuts until it tells you to stand back...then start when it tells you to start again. If you have to time 30, 15, or 5 compressions in the 2 minutes the AED gives you before hitting them with the juice, it could get confusing.

I understand where they are coming from. People need a reason to live just as a person needs a reason to survive in a survival situation. If a person does not have a reason to survive, they won't.

Jeanette Isabelle

I Agree. A wheelchair is not the end of the world.

Jeanette Isabelle

Not so much in a hurry to die, as aware of the truth that there are things that are worse than death, and that a significant number of the folks who arrest and die, quickly and cleanly, are resuscitated to endure a slow and tortured demise. Most of the folks I know who have worked in intensive care units do not wish to ever wake up in one.

Amen Nursemike.

I think the 15:2 and 5:1 are cut out of the lay CPR. However, IIRC, professional CPR still teaches a higher rate once an airway is established (Combitube, endotracheal, etc). I don't remember if it's 5:1 or what, but that's b/c I haven't had an arrest in the field for probably 3 years. Hospital is different, cuz the respiratory tech is bagging while someone bangs on the chest.