An Avoidable Medical Tragedy
Murphy's law states that anything that can go wrong, WILL go wrong at some time.
"Anything that can go wrong will go wrong." In some formulations, it is extended to "Anything that can go wrong will go wrong, and at the worst possible time."
This child, his sister, and their family in Seattle is scarred for life . The monetary compensation settlement of US $1.86 million from Seattle City is but a pittance to avoid criminal liability. Managed Cities in so-called advanced countries that chest-thump democratic principles settle through currency (October 2, 2023). We will talk about this in a later discussion.
My father died of cardio-respiratory arrest in 1981, the memory of which haunts me daily, several times, if not continuously. I was In Delhi, India where I had to go to the neighbour's house to wake them up at 2.45 AM (02.00 hours) to declare my father's death to my extended family. I had no telephone.
What to do now??
1. Every family with a suspected but subclinical unhealthy family member between 40-50 years of age, howsoever active and healthy appearing but overweight/obese, cigarette-smoking/vaping, alcohol imbibing, high LDL cholesterol, diabetes mellitus, hypertensive, type A (shouting, aggressive person, male or female), and bad family history for heart attacks must prepare for such an eventuality, where there will -- more often than not -- be a delay in receiving appropriate medical care.
2. Keep a Oxygen Separator Machine (Everflo-like device) at home.
Buy it. Don't think of renting it.
And start oxygenation to the patient immediatey, even before the 911 call.
Oxygen is one of the best, if not the best medicine for chest pain due to a heart attack (CAD, coronary artery syndrome, acute myocardial infarction).
It can do not harm, at 4 L/min, level 4, at room air pressure. It can buy you time for 12 hours or more.
3. Keep patient in upright position, supported by many pillows.
4. Dangle the legs by the side of the bed, if possible.
5. Tie tourniquets to lower limbs, and if possible to upper limbs, at thighs and arms.
Reduce blood flow to the heart. Survival of the pump function of the heart is under challenge,
6. Keep a stethoscope at home. Practice to learn heart sounds.
7. Be proactive in learning CPR, especially the thump maneuver. Join such classes rather than rock dance classes at school or focus on prom at college (higher school).
Practice on a mannequin. Demand to do so.
Forget the Prom or the celebrations surrounding Thanksgiving or Christmas.
Learn CPR and its intricacies.
7. Keep a Blood Pressure monitoring device and a Pulse Oximeter at home. And, learn to use it. Even if Oxygen Meter reading is 99 mm Hg, start the oxygen.
8. Administer Aspirin 300 mg in a large glass of milk (200-300 ml)
9. If Blood Pressure falls or starts falling, remove the tourniquets, place the lower limbs on the bed, raise the foot-end of the bed placing pillows or blocks while continuing oxygenation.
10. If Blood Pressure falls below 100 mm Hg, by Pulse Oximetry measurement, and your loved one starts sweating profusely, apply Nicotine Transdermal Patches 21 mg / 24 hours to all four limbs. Learn how to do it in advance.
Nicotine Transdermal patches raise blood pressure.
As Blood Pressures rises to 120 mm or more, start removing the Nicotine Transdermal Patches one-by-one.
This is furturistic treatment that I have discovered (see ResearchGate).
This will buy you 12 hours or more of time.
Remember, time is of the essence.
11. Except for tracheal intubation, you will have done more than 90% of the advanced treatment that stabilizes such patients in the Emergency Van or the Advanced Hospital ICU. Arrythymia is the one facet you cannot control effectively.
12. You cannot expect the System, howsoever, digitally advanced, to offer such empathy and care for your loved one. In the Hospital, we are at the hands of strangers who double-blindly follow guidelines issued by other strangers.
13. Your enemies to good cardio-vascular health are the Supermarkets, the Burger outlets, the salad dressings and mayonnaise, the Cake Shops, the refrigerators at home, the never-ending advertisements that pander to the good-life via the palate, the canonization of the Chefs, alcohol / cigarette manufacturers, cars and elevators that ply you with calories and rob you of physical activity.
FOREWARNED IS FOREARMED.
13-OCT-2023
Delhi, India
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Vinod-Gupta-5
https://www.orcid.org/0000-0002-6770-5916
The FDA-USA or European Heath Authorities focus on guidelines and call-to-door time.
They have absolutely no inkling about when the management of such patients should begin or how lay people should be trained and made aware of what they can do first-hand, long before the ETs arrive at their homes.
Remember, magnesium lowers the blood pressure -- a killer in this condition.
DO NOT CONSENT TO RANDOMIZED PLACEBO CONTROLLED TRIALS INVOLVING EXOGENOUS SUPPLEMENTATION OF MAGNESIUM IN THIS CLINICAL SITUATION THAT YOUR LOVED ONE IS IN.
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