List Archives

Fri Jan 12 13:58:12 GMT 2007

  12 minutes are 12 minutes >> 6 minutes.

  The reply you must offer is, "Can you think of any way to revive the
dead?"  Those who criticize this case are matched by those who would
have criticized had resuscitation been attempted.  This was an
impossible situation.  I have been in a similar, not identical,
situation in which the time was unknown; I tried and failed.  I would
probably have tried in your case, with no expectation of success, and I
do not criticize you for not trying, because 12 minutes are 12 minutes
>> 6 minutes.  I will also say, quite honestly, that had I been the
patient, I would have wanted you NOT to try!  I would rather be dead
than a dead vegetable.


> No reference to offer, just a thank you on behalf of myself and my
> paramedic colleagues around the globe. This must have been a difficult
> situation for those medics. It is not an easy place to be standing.
> Everyone around you expects you to "do something", when there may be
> nothing that can be done. And more often than not, when "some clever
> dick 'expert' witness" challenges the medics' decision with retrofitted
> spectacles, few EMS managers or physicians are willing to stand up as
> you are doing to explain or defend their actions.
>
> It's a lonely feeling when that happens.
>
> Thank you.
>
> Steve Urszenyi
> Advanced Care Paramedic
> Toronto, Ontario, CANADA
>
> ----- Original Message ----
> From: John Holmes <docjohnholmes at hotmail.com>
> To: trauma-list at trauma.org
> Sent: Friday, January 12, 2007 7:16:33 AM
> Subject: RE: death after traumatic asphyxia
>
>
> Thanks Pret,
>
> It was 12 - 15 minutes from the time he was observed to "go still" till
> when  they got him out by which stage he was then in asystole.  Cardiac
> arrest  could have been anything from 0 - 15 minutes (from the case
> notes I suspect  the latter).
>
> He was in my opinioin irretrievable at that stage but some clever dick
> "expert" witness will get up and say he should have been given a trial
> of  CPR and ACLS.  I just want to be in an irrefutable position when
> giving my  testimony.
>
> John
>
> Dr John L Holmes
> Director Emergency Medicine
> Mater Adult Hospital
> Brisbane, Australia
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death after traumatic asphyxia