Beck - I was waiting for a table at Cracker Barrel once time and saw an older woman waiting for her table who looked wrong. She was sitting in a chair but looked really out of it. I asked her if she was diabetic and she said yes. She’d taken her insulin before she got to CB, and of course the wait was long. I alerted the staff and got them to give her OJ. She ended up okay, but she seemed to be slowly fading and no one noticed.
My sister’s thought was maybe the glucagon spray would have fewer side effects than the shot, which she agrees is horrible.
You’re my hero.
Of course we want the natural way to get glucose up. It’s not always possible.
Low blood glucose can kill you quickly. High blood glucose kills but it’s slower by years.
I was compliant and in control for many years. Til I wasn’t. My other health issues have created storms that cause my diabetes to take over. It’s a fight everyday to keep things balanced and in check.
To be fair (probably fairer than is called for here), beginning CPR on a woman might require removing her bra. If you saw a man removing the bra of a woman who doesn’t seem to be cooperating in the effort, on first glance at a distance it looks like assault. If you then noted that the woman was unresponsive, and you didn’t know how she got that way, you might assume that was a consequence of said assault. If someone said “I’m just doing CPR” it might sound like a second story for doing something else to an unconscious body (robbing or something worse).
20 years ago that wouldn’t have been an obstacle to me doing CPR. If someone initially assumed the worst, I think the impression could be easily corrected. Nowadays with everybody filming everything on a cell phone, I’d have to assume my actions could be uploaded, and a deceptive edit would go viral before the full edit. And who you might assume should be a grateful victim might turn out to be an opportunistic litigant (or their family, more likely).
Having thought of that, now I think should adjust my approach to ask a trusted bystander to film the event from the beginning. “You there, start recording. And you over there, call 911 now.” And upon further thought… woman, man, child, whatever - all should get that same treatment. Contextualize everything you do, because if you don’t the internet might.
But I probably wouldn’t, I’d probably just act and then later fret about the risk I took, because that’s how I do everything.
You are supposed to call 911, or ask sometime else to call 911, before initiating CPR. (source: recent CPR training, as I’m required to be CPR certified for my part-time gig.) I would think having called the cops to the scene before touching the person is damn good evidence that you weren’t attempting rape.
Also, DO call 911, whether or not you feel comfortable touching the unresponsive person.
Are Samaritan laws meant to cover those who have had training (doctors, EMTs, etc) or is it meant to protect Joe Schmo on the street who sees the accident and runs in to help?
Also, is the law a protection against criminal prosecution or civil liability or both? (really asking…I have no idea and I am curious)
That’s going to vary some by state but in NY the “ordinary” Good Samaritan law protects anyone from civil liability unless they are grossly negligent and definitions of crimes usually exclude medical treatment in some way ( sometimes by requiring an intent to harm or that actions are for no legitimate purpose ) so that you haven’t committed an assault if you didn’t intend to harm the person by pounding on their chest. . There’s also a special one that prevents anyone who calls an ambulance for an overdose from being arrested for various drug-related crimes.
Yes it’s my understanding CPR should be done on a bare chest. Bras get in the way, underwire bras could be harmful if they have to use AED to get your heart restarted.
Also, performing CPR really doesn’t look like sexual assault. I looks a little like simple assault (you are hitting the person, sort of) but i think fear of being arrested as a pervert is vastly disproportionate.
I’ve taken several CPR classes. All the dummies were torsos with no identifiable gender, but basically they appeared male.
For a woman, you can do chest compressions without removing her bra. In fact, the time you’d take to remove her bra would be precious moments when she’s not getting oxygenated blood circulating.
Last November my wife was in the hospital. Her heart was stopping beating and I had to go out and get the nurse. They did CPR on her for a good 20 minutes before the compressions plus the meds they gave her restarted her heart, just enough to get her in for emergency vascular surgery.
20 minutes of chest compressions. That’s a long time.
Fortunately she survived with no loss of brain function. She’s still on disability but she’s getting stronger every day and she should recover fully.
Yeah that was quite a scare. I stayed beside her the entire time, squeezing her hand or shoulder to ‘communicate’ with her.
ETA: had to look it up but they used a Lucas 3 device for automated chest compressions (images ➜ https://is.gd/sZPUejn). It’s a fascinating, and amazing piece of gear. That Lucas 3 saved her life.
I take a CPR class every two years. I’ve never gone back to the same place twice. (Just scheduling, not complaints about any of them.) Every single one used a male torso and a baby. I’ve never seen a female torso, or even one of “no identifiable gender”. I think that’s a problem.
I think the fear suggested in the article is the woman will later claim she was fondled. Not via CPR but the person took the opportunity to get a good grope in.
Modern CPR recommendations do not require rescue breaths unless one is fully trained in CPR and confident of their abilities. So no lip-locking necessary.
I’m not sure why they dropped the rescue breathing recommendation in recent years, though. It’s not like you’re going to hurt anyone with rescue breathing, other than possibly overfilling a baby’s lungs if you’re not careful. It’s much more likely the chest compressions will cause an unintended injury.
My guess is that, by the AIDS years people were wary to give mouth-to-mouth to a stranger, so the rescue breaths were dropped because compressions alone are better than no CPR at all.
So, how many cases like this are we talking about on an annual basis? Are there hundreds of men who give a woman CPR, then are falsely accused of sexual assault, each year? Dozens? Can I count the annual cases on one hand? One finger?
How about ever?
I’m curious whether this is an actual risk, or if it’s fantasy fearmongering, the modern equivalent of being terrified of goblins.
There’s sufficient oxygen in the blood stream. If you keep circulating it with chest compressions, that is better than stopping the compressions to give the breaths and then continuing with compressions.
Very important advice. I haven’t had CPR training for a long time, not really up to date, I’d use any effort to find advice or assistance before doing anything at all. But as a last resort I’d take the risk and try. I find it unlikely I’ll encounter a woman lying on the ground with no one else around and no way to call 911 so it’s not really something that would get in the way of doing what any decent person should do to the best of their ability when encountering anyone in a danger.
I can believe that a man who is conditioned not to touch the breasts of women he doesn’t know would be hesitant to start CPR. I can’t believe that anyone but a gross misogynist would actually be afraid that a woman would respond to your literally saving her life by accusing you of sexual assault. And in the bizarre chance it happened, the conscious witnesses (like the EMT team who responded to your 911 call) would testify in your favor. And the good Samaritan laws give anyone who complains a very large burden of proof.