Re: [Paddlewise] Baywatch, no kidding!

Actually, as a practicing paramedic, I think few in my profession would
refuse to do CPR/ventilations without a barrier, if we stumbled onto an
incident requiring such action.  I carry a pocketmask with a oneway valve
in my car. 

 We are acutely aware of the risk and would exercise judgement that is a
bit complicated and also a bit judgmental.  People in blunt trauma arrests,
for example, have virtually no chance of recovery and therefore would be
less likely to receive resuscitative efforts, especially if bloody.
Actually, these people are commonly being pronouced DOA in the field with
hospital consults, so we wouldn't risk infection after stumbling into this
situation while off duty.  Cold water drownings would almost certainly
receive full and prolonged resuscitation with or without a barrier, but
only in up to one hour submersion time. Little risk of infection is present
in these patients.

If in doubt, I would help for my own mental health.  If I fail to act, I'll
be secondguessing my decision for a very long time.

						Bill 


 At 04:26 PM 11/8/99 -0800, Tina wrote:
>I heard from a friend, (I would never waste time watching something like
>that  :>), that on CPR, mouth to mouth scenes, the Baywatchers never use a
>mouth shield.  In reality, I understand that paramedics would refuse to
>perform mouth to mouth on anyone without a shield of some sort, to protect
>from contacting blood and saliva borne illnesses.
>
>Tina
>
>
>>That must've been a good Baywatch.  I remember watching an episode not to
>>long ago, where they were trying to rescue some kayakers (sit-on-top) that
>>apparently capsized and were swept into caves.  Not a single person on that
>>whole show wore a pfd.  Not even when the machos guys (could've been Jason)
>>decided that they could be the heros by rescueing them at night (no pfd's,
>>and I think one of them had a flashlight).
>
>
>
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