Knitting Needles and Puncture Wounds?

Posted on June 11th, 2010 by Roy Shaw

Knitting Needles can be the source of warm mittens, cozy scarves and comforting winter sweaters.  They can also become sharp pointed weapons or injury causing spikes when fallen upon or when they are thrust into the face, neck, chest or abdomen due to a car accident or accidentally falling onto them.  In this RoyOnRescue episode, we take a look at the hidden danger of sharp pointed objects that usually remain harmless but when not respected and carried safely, they could cause great harm.  Learn about the dangers of pointed objects and how to keep knitting needles a source of pleasure not pain.

Tags: breathing, chest injuries, CPR, CPR on Chest Injuries, impailed object, impaled knitting needle, impaled objects, Knitting Needle injuries, Knitting Needles, open chest wounds, patient assessment, ProCPR, procpr.org, ProFirstAid, ProFirstAid.com, rescue breathing, Roy Shaw, royonrescue, sharp objects, Sucking chest Wounds

Giving CPR to People With Bleeding Chest Injuries

Posted on June 7th, 2010 by Roy Shaw

I received an email that I think we can all benefit from.

It read…

“Since most of the first aid measures for a no pulse, no breathing situation is immediate CPR, is it alright to do CPR if the victim has a wound on the chest that is bleeding profusely? This is not that I have seen this situation, but I like to think that if it happens I would know what to do!”
C. H.

That’s a great question C.   Sometimes it’s easy to get distracted by a serious traumatic injury and forget the basics and what needs to be done first in order to try and save the person’s life.  Or, we can look at a complicating injury such as a chest wound and think,  How am I going to do CPR on this person, there chest has a serious bleeding wound right where I’m going to give my compressions?

In this episode of RoyOnRescue we are going to look a proper treatment plan if we ever came across a person who had a serious chest injury and needed CPR.

Tags: bleeding and CPR, Bleeding Chest, Cardiac Arrest, chest injuries, Chest trauma, CPR, CPR and Traumatic chest injuries, CPR on Bleeding Chest, impailed objects in chest, open chest wounds, personal protective equipment, procpr.org, ProFirstAid.com, protection from blood, rescue breathing, royonrescue, Trauma and CPR, traumatic cardiac arrest

Agonal Respirations Kind Of Look Like Sleep Apnea!

Posted on March 29th, 2010 by Roy Shaw

As I reflected on yesterdays video blog; “Gasping for Life”, I thought I should expound on what real agonal respirations really are and maybe even find some examples for you to see or hear.   Well, let me tell you this has turned out to be more difficult than I imagined.   As I searched the internet for some medical records of what I have seen during episodes of agonal respirations all I could find was one well intentioned but non realistic version of agonal respirations while everything else was simply informational.   I then began thinking about the times I had seen low blood sugar patients or postictal seizure patients and thought…I bet a good snoring respiration would be close!

After some time, I found an actual serious sleep apnea(OSA) case and thought I would include the link in the video blog for you to see.   Though this is not exactly what agonal respirations look or sound like, it is a far cry closer than other replications I found and will at least get the idea across that any form of agonal or distressed drive to breath is not oxygenating the body well and should be treated with Rescue Breathing or Full CPR depending on the symptoms.

I hope this helps clear up any confusion and please let me know if you would like me to expound on anything else relating to this video blog.

Best Wishes,
Roy Shaw, EMT-P

RoyOnRescue.com

Actual Video Of Sleep Apnea (Warning! This video could be disturbing.  Viewer discretion advised.)

Tags: agonal respirations, airway, can sleep apnea kill you, CPR, dieing from sleep apnea, Difficulty Breathing, OSA, rescue breathing, Severe Snoring, Sleep Apnea, What to do for sleep apnea

Gasping For Life!

Posted on March 26th, 2010 by Roy Shaw

If an unconscious person is gasping but not breathing normally should you call 911 and leave them alone, or should you begin aggressive CPR?  In this Video Blog, Roy Shaw, EMT-P tells a true story about how a child may have died due to not having life saving CPR because she was showing signs of agonal breathing.  This caused the rescuer to stop the life saving CPR and ended tragically.
Watch this Video Blog to learn what agonal breathing is and how to respond to it.

http://www.theheart.org/article/924633.do

Tags: agonal breaths, agonal breaths and cpr, agonal respirations, CPR, drownings, Gasping, Gasping breaths, hands only cpr, ProCPR, ProFirstAid, pulse checks, rescue breathing, royonrescue, UK Child Dies When CPR Stopped, UK Lifeguard CPR