I thought I remembered the cite from **How We Die ** as saying that even if someone is already a hospital inpatient, if they have a heart attack they only have a 20% chance of living.
If you are, let’s say, standing at a bus stop with one other person, and they keel over and die (clinically), you’re saying that you wouldn’t attempt to perform CPR because you don’t have the “proper equipment”? I, for one, would most certainly fault you. In fact, I’d call you a shitheel.
–FCOD
Well I can live with you finding fault with that.
I’d rather have someone think I’m a shitheel than have a mouth full of vomit and a chance of catching hepatitis from a total stranger’s bodily fluids.
It’s all a bit Kitty Genovese, cat.
I have no doubt that this will come back to him one day. He may not connect it to this incident, but he will get what he deserves.
Don’t anyone jump at catsix unless you are certain your CPR and first aid skills are up to date. Though cat might want to look into getting hepatitis shots just for safety, after all maybe you’ll want to kiss someone without knowing their full medical history.
Your justification is incomplete. Let me revise it for you: “I’d rather have someone think I’m a shitheel than increase a person’s chance of survival by 80% and have a mouth full of vomit and a miniscule chance of catching hepatitis from a total stranger’s bodily fluids.”
I’ve personally administered CPR to total strangers on two seperate occasions using only the required equipment (my lungs and arms). I didn’t get any vomit or hepatitis, but I did possibly save two people’s lives.
–FCOD
Otaki already nailed this one. Although HIV isn’t transmisible from “mouth-to-mouth” there are still a significant number of nasty pathogens that can be transmitted via mouth-to-mouth.
That’s great for you. I’ll be the first to conceed that the chances of catching something serious from CPR are small, but it’s always a personal decision belonging to the (potential) rescuer and no-one who isn’t paid to do this has any responsibility to act.
You are correct. It is a personal decision. There is no responsibility to attempt to save a fellow human being’s life.
However, if you (in a general sense) choose not to attempt to save a stranger’s life because of the MINISCULE (the link I provided in the previous post states that there are no cases on record of a disease being contracted via CPR) chance of catching a treatable disease, IMO you are a shitheel. I hope you never need rescuing yourself, because chances are (in this world) that your would-be rescuer is going to be too worried about him/her self than your dead ass.
–FCOD
Actually, FCOD, one of the first, and most important tasks of any rescue worker (not Good Samaritan, but rescue worker) is to determine what actions can be taken with the least risk to the rescue worker. For things like BBPs, this becomes a completely subjective assessment IMNSHO. I’ve dealt with people who’ve had serious psychological disorders grow up from simply having found out they’d been exposed to Hep B. It’s not as nasty as HIV, but it’s not a fun condition, either. And for some people it can become life-threatening.
As can anxiety.
As for vomiting, have you heard of sympathetic pukers? They’re far more common than you might think. In a sample of approximately 600 men, selected for above average health, physical conditioning, and having anti-nausea medications available for those who needed it, I’ve seen approximately 10-15% of that group go running for the bathroom, simply because they heard someone gagging over the 1MC while in heavy seas.
I’m not about to tell catsix that the concerns raised are unreasonable. I don’t know how strongly catsix would be squicked by the idea of having Jane Doe’s ejecta in catsix’s mouth. I can accept that the concern may well be strong enough interfere with catsix’s ability to perform CPR.
It’s not a decision you can make for anyone. And you’re going way overboard on your condemnation of catsix’s position.
catsix is not stating a refusal to offer services while on the clock. catsix, is only saying that when off the clock, if without what catsix judges to be minimum safety equipment, catsix refuses to take actions that may leave catsix in the position of a poor swimmer, going out to rescue a non-swimmer - and then they both drown.
I’m not going to worry about the risks for CPR if it ever comes up, too much, myself. But there are times that I don’t quite make it to sane. I have no condemnation for catsix’s position.
BTW, do you remember the American Red Cross’s stance on autologous blood donation for surgeries, going back about 10-15 years ago? IIRC, they were down on it, claiming it was wasteful, and a drain on resources. Besides no one had gotten Hep C from a blood transfusion.
They can’t say that now.
And there’s damned little comfort in being written up in the medical journals for your fifteen minutes of fame. Or do you think that the woman in France who’d just recieved her face transplant wouldn’t much prefer to have her own face, and not be famous?