Paralysis: What are the chances coroners couldn't tell they were alive?

[DesertDog]

In 1936 a jockey at Bay Meadows had a horse fall on him in a race and was declared dead, to the point of having a toe tag applied. A shot of adrenaline was administered anyway and within minutes he sat up, ran from the hospital in just his breeches and one boot, and hailed a taxi back to the track. He was back in the saddle the next day,

[picunurse]

If a patient is brought, unconscious or paralyzed to an ER, the first thing that done would be an assessment of their breathing and heart rate and rhythm. We no longer hold a mirrir at the lips to assess breathing.
We listen with a stethoscope, attach an SaO[sub]2[/sub] monitor to their finger, do a needle stick in an artery for a blood gas. If they were not breathing well enough to sustain live, they would be intubated, and placed on a ventilator.

There are several things that can cause paralysis, all of which would be treated as described above. The only time that wouldn’t happen is if they never made it to the ER.

Just remember, all we really do is make sure air goes in and out and blood goes round and round. Without that, all other treatment is worthless.

[Nava]

… what’s SaO2?

(and, how do you get the little numbers?)

[Dunderman]

@Tuckerfan

Heart rates are funny things and probably not as well understood as we might think. One of the Apollo astronauts was originally rejected for the space program because his heart rate was thought to be too low, eventually, the docs realized that his heart rate was so low because of how physically fit he was.

Last time I was going in for surgery, as they put on all the medical surveillance equipment they remarked on how calm and cool I was, not nervous at all. My heart rate was only in the low seventies - ice cool.

Of course, my normal resting heart rate is in the mid-forties - I was nervous as hell.

I also scared them a little in post-op, as my heart rate was back in the forties. I had to keep assuring them it was normal for me.

[gigi]

@Hilarity N. Suze

The paramedics thought he was dead but the protocol was to warm him up anyway, so they did–fortunately. I was discussing this with a doctor who said something to the effect that “Yeah, when you find somebody in the cold, like water or a snowbank, you don’t pronounce them dead until they’re warm and dead.”

Woot! Grey’s Anatomy got something medical right. They put these words in the mouth of the chief as they were working on poor blue cold Meredith.

[bordelond]

@Nava

… what’s SaO2?

(and, how do you get the little numbers?)

SaO[sub]2[/sub] looks like a chemical formula, but it’s not – it stands for “oxygen saturation”.

The {sub}{/sub} tags will get you the small numbers (use square brackets, of course).

[St.Urho]

@picunurse

If a patient is brought, unconscious or paralyzed to an ER, the first thing that done would be an assessment of their breathing and heart rate and rhythm. We no longer hold a mirrir at the lips to assess breathing.
We listen with a stethoscope, attach an SaO[sub]2[/sub] monitor to their finger, do a needle stick in an artery for a blood gas. If they were not breathing well enough to sustain live, they would be intubated, and placed on a ventilator.

There are several things that can cause paralysis, all of which would be treated as described above. The only time that wouldn’t happen is if they never made it to the ER.

It works pretty similarly in the field. We won’t use the monitor if someone has massive traumatic injuries, or is rigored or has dependent lividity. Even then I’ll listen for heart tones/ lung sounds for a full minute.

We obviously can’t send a blood gas, and we don’t usually check a pulse ox. We will use the EKG and we’ll often check the end-tidal CO[sub]2[/sub] (EtCO[sub]2[/sub])

St. Urho
Paramedic

[Operation_Ripper]

@Tuckerfan

Not identical to what I said, but close.

Yeah, it was missing the “medical experts” part, which was what I was calling BS on.

[Colibri]

@DocCathode

Uncle Cecil On Wade Davis

He does not sound like a reliable source

I have had dinner with Wade Davis, attended some of his lectures, and read The Serpent and the Rainbow, which is definitely non-fiction. Although some of Davis’s conclusions were certainly controversial, he does have substantial scientific credentials and is affiliated with a number of respected institutions. How exactly he is regarded in the anthropological community these days I am not certain, since I’m not that up on the literature, but he’s not a charlatan.