Please bear with me, I have to get this off my chest.

I am also jaded when it comes to current and the new CPR guidelines. I started giving CPR back in 1968 as a Inhalation Therapist, now currently known as a Respiratory Therapist, at a well known teaching hospital in Chicago. Procedures that we used to great success are now not taught and are in fact frowned upon. It has been many years since I was a therapist but with the aging population and the accidents I have come across, my CPR techniques have been very successful.

They no longer teach nor recommend the Pre-Cardiac Thump Technique in CPR. The conclusion being that the risk of causing physical injury outweighed the benefits. I however have used it on heart fibrillation due to trauma or shock in both adults and infants. I last used this technique to revived my neighbor three times prior to the paramedics arriving. Other CPR techniques on him were not required as he resumed breathing on his own until his heart started fibrillating again. He was a long time diabetic who suffered a recent heart attack. We were lunching together at the time.

Now they only want people to use compressions and not breathing techniques. Unskilled or over excited rescuers can and do break ribs in current CPR techniques just as with the Pre-Cardiac Thump technique but the risk is worth it in one case and not the other. Strange logic! I personally think one is based on fear of legal repercussions and the other is based on fear of disease transmission.

To keep the brain or other organs healthy, oxygen is needed. Evan when a body is to used as organ donor, we kept brain dead victims oxygenated until surgery was preformed to, pardon the expression, mine the organs.

My longest time using unassisted CPR was forty five minutes but I was using an Ambu bag. Unbeknownst to me, the young girl happened to be the daughter of a work associate at my main vocation as a Communications Engineer. Even being in great shape, I do not think I would have been able to do CPR that long without a bag. I trained a bystander while I was doing this so that I could rest my wrist and we continued “Two Person CPR” until the ambulance arrived. To this day I carry a Ambu bag in each of my vehicles including my RV and in my main first aid kit. I have not been able to EDC one but I will keep trying to figure out a way.

Many of my friends are First Responders and they wonder why I don’t become certified especially after staying current in all the courses. Evan though I live in a state that has very friendly “Good Samaritan Laws,” I could no longer use the techniques I know save lives without risking legal liability. Once you become certified, you must follow the current rules or directives. I will just remain a well trained amateur.

One last comment. In all the cases where I performed CPR, not once did the patient throw up during the procedure. This was not due to any unique technique, I was just one lucky guy. All my associates suffered though vomit but I never had to. I always was ready to turn the patient’s head, clear their airway, throw up myself, and start again but I never had to.

My down fall and the eventual end of my therapist career was due to the large number of terminal pediatric patients under my care. Their innocent eyes tore up my heart and to this day I still think about them. Medical professionals who specialize on terminally ill infants are unique and face more stress than I can endure.