‘Dead’ for 21 minutes, then saved by family.
A nice, positive article about the ambulance service in today’s Metro, in particular showing the importance of CPR whilst waiting for the ambulance. Only three cases of Metro-ese spoiling the article:
- Rob Tait, 61, had a massive cardiac arrest… A massive cardiac arrest? Do they come in different sizes? Is it possible to have a small cardiac arrest, then?
- … their father became one of only ten per cent of Londoners who survive a serious heart attack… A serious heart attack? I would have thought all heart attacks were pretty serious! Not sure where they are getting their figure from here - the percentage of people who survive a heart attack is more like 50%; the percentage that survive a cardiac arrest is more like 5%. Maybe they made it up on the spot!
- Joel got on the phone to call an ambulance… the ambulance crew told us to concentrate on the heart So they called 999 and spoke to the ambulance crew, did they? How irregular! Normally 999 comes through to Nee Naw Control, not direct to the cab of an ambulance. I must have a word about these pesky ambulance crews doing our jobs for us.
Anyway, I shouldn’t be so cynical, at least they had something positive to say about us this time!
The Islington Gazette has a less nonsensical version of the same story.
(Oh, and by the way, the first responder on scene was an Emergency Medical Technician…)
18 Comments on “Another Metro Article”
December 1st, 2006 at 1:45 pm
Ah well, just remember - 75% of all statistics are made up!!!
December 1st, 2006 at 3:10 pm
Concentrate on his heart? What kind of nonsense is that!?!
Makes it sound like some kind of ouiji board. Like concentrating on his heart would help. Sounds like what he needs is a circulation, so CPR would have been more appropriate than just concentrating!
December 1st, 2006 at 3:33 pm
Do not believe anything you read in a newspaper small enough to be held in one hand!
December 1st, 2006 at 3:56 pm
Come on - concentrating on the heart means just that. Don’t worry about mouth to mouth, just do CPR. That’s most important. That’s why the resus protocols have changed.
December 1st, 2006 at 4:16 pm
Yeah, I gathered that was what was meant, but DrLib is right - if you didn’t know about the new protocols you’d think the caller was just standing there trying to restart the patient’s heart with the power of his mind
December 1st, 2006 at 4:48 pm
It just goes to show that CPR works….sometimes. A happy ending to a possible tragedy.
The headline…”Dead for 21 minutes then saved by family.” puts forward the suggestion that the ambulance was not there until then. Papers sell more with dramatic headlines but at whose expense?
I wish that CPR could be introduced into mainstream education as the more that know how, and when, to do it can only be a good thing.
Everyone that I,ve taught CPR to I,ve told them that they may not get to use it the next day, the next week, month or year but at sometime in their life they will.
December 1st, 2006 at 5:03 pm
It does say somewhere that the ambulance took six minutes. I suppose it was 21 minutes from the point of cardiac arrest to the crew getting an output. The headline makes it sound as if he was lying there for 21 minutes before anyone did anything, which sounds like a medical miracle!
December 1st, 2006 at 6:04 pm
To be fair, “the ambulance crew told us” is a quote from the man’s son. (Obviously, he doesn’t read this blog…) And “massive cardiac arrest” sounds like the phrase “suffered a massive heart attack and went into cardiac arrest.” was abbreviated by either the reporter or his editor.
The headline, however, is ridiculous.
December 1st, 2006 at 6:07 pm
In the Islington Gazette article, the man’s son is quoted as saying “the ambulance told us”, which makes me think Metro added the “crew” bit. Am assuming that by “ambulance” the son meant “miscellaneous person who works for the ambulance service as I am not sure what their proper job title is” and not “large white vehicle with blue lights on top”. That would be amazing, a talking ambulance!
December 1st, 2006 at 8:58 pm
Hi Mark, My son (Mark) is a RLSS pool lifeguard and came home several weeks ago from staff training with the new CPR protacol, which, they are receiving training on at present, When you are instructing people over the phone are you using the new or old protocal?
December 2nd, 2006 at 1:36 am
Geez, you gotta love dodgy journalism eh.
My sister’s a journo and put me onto your blog, she’ll have kittens when she reads your latest post!
Like you said though, at least it is positive.
December 2nd, 2006 at 3:13 am
My ambulance talsk!!
It says “diesel fuel only” and “stand well clear, ambulance reversing”. Not much good at an arrest.
Would be more helpfull if it said “ill people only” and “stand well clear, pisshead, jakie on board”.
86% of the time this would be true.
December 2nd, 2006 at 3:24 am
Martin said, on December 1st, 2006 at 3:56 pm:
“Come on - concentrating on the heart means just that. Don’t worry about mouth to mouth, just do CPR.”
What do you think the P stands for in CPR? It’s not all about the chest compressions.
December 2nd, 2006 at 7:43 pm
So what exactly are the over-the-phone instructions for CPR? Compression-only C(P)R? Would you dissuade a caller who was performing some cycle of compressions and rescue-breathing from continuing?
December 3rd, 2006 at 12:32 am
Suppose it is nice that the ambulance service is recognised as existing in London, out in the rural shirelands, our newspapers usually only report that the fire service or the police were on the scene within minutes, but by way of a miracle the patient always makes their way to hospital with no mention of an ambulance or that we may have treated them at all!! Not that we are bitter!!
December 5th, 2006 at 1:53 am
I was pleased when my eldest daughter decided to take up a career as a paramedic out here, [but a little worried] I decided it was ’safer’ than the police or fire service out here in the US.
Now she’s decided to go out to Mozambique to teach Aides Awareness, I think I preferred the first option.
Be careful what you wish for.
Cheers
December 10th, 2006 at 3:57 pm
Nicenurse,
You aren’t alone there, our PR people consistently fail to relate to the public too.
SD
December 11th, 2006 at 12:53 pm
Aloha,
I had a lovely promotion from the press in a job I did recently.
“Paramedics rescue girl in police crash”.
If only the pay rise followed!!
Tom