A bit of local news surfaced today that is relevant to a public relations/publicity discussion.
This is why too much hype can be a bad thing:
Bystanders overreacted when lifeguards rescued three-year-old Yasmany Pepin from a pond n Milton, Mass. Sunday afternoon.
A man swimming with his daughter noticed the boy motionless in the water and carried him out where lifeguards noticed he had a pulse, cleared his airways and turned him on his side as he started to vomit. In clearing the airways, one lifeguard even administered mouth-to-mouth for a short period of time, stopping when the boy started breathing on his own.
This is the correct rescue procedure.
According to The Boston Globe, two women then pushed their way through the gathering crowd in an apparent panic. They decided that CPR was necessary and fought with the lifeguards who assured the two that the situation was under control.
Reportedly, the women accused the lifeguards of refusing to help the boy and started to administer CPR, including chest compressions, to him. The situation escalated so far that one woman was actually arrested for kicking a state police officer who arrived on the scene.
This reporter recently spoke with firefighters in the New England region who cautioned against the zealousness of would-be heroes interfering with the operations of trained rescuers and first-responders.
Furthermore, CPR itself, especially chest compressions, can be deadly if administered incorrectly and often results in broken ribs, even if done right. The two women in this case apparently administered unnecessary and counterproductive measures, against the advice of trained lifeguards in what appears to have been a disorganized panic on the part of the seemingly well-intentioned bystanders.
"If you need CPR, it doesn't matter one way or the other if it's done correctly. But if you don't need it, it can do a lot of harm," said one firefighter. "If you do need CPR, it should never be held back, but if the person is conscious and breathing on their own and you give CPR, you could kill them."
Article comments
1 - Victor Plenty
I blame Tom Cruise.
2 - Howard Dratch
In the article Summer Sun, Summer Fun, Heat-Related Ills here on Blogcritics I described a crisis where my wife convulsed and stopped breathing. I remembered my CPR course of 25 years earlier. She responded. I was pretty damned proud of myself.
Later I looked up all the proper procedures and I was less impressed. I did enough for the situation but hardly professional efforts. I had never used CPR during those 25 years since my courses.
It is a miraculous technique. It is best left to professionals when they are available. In Mexico, they were not. I did what I had been trained and it worked. However, the paramedics of Diaz Ambulance in Saugerties, NY who saved my life during an attack of congestive heart failure about 12 years ago could do CPR and so much else. They are the people we have to trust. Our knowledge is invaluable only when they are not yet there or not available.
I blame Baywatch.
3 - Martin Lav
I blame Mel Gibson.
4 - Victor Plenty
I don't recall Mel Gibson playing any characters who received CPR. I picked on Tom Cruise because he recently played a character who was clinically dead, then revived with CPR. Minutes later he was walking around and talking as if nothing had happened.
This is not the way CPR or rescue breathing usually work in real life. Very frequently a nearly drowned person will remain unconscious for several minutes after they start breathing on their own again. I suspect the people who panicked at the pond in Massachusetts were panicking because they thought the kid should immediately jump up wide awake if he didn't need CPR.
Of course Baywatch should also probably share in the blame for showing people too quickly and too easily recovering from nearly drowning.
5 - Howard Dratch
Victor: Interesting article, timely article.
Some time ago I read a study (after medical people had revived me with CPR) which reported that Movie/TV characters who were revived were 100% recovered 80-plus percent of the time. In real life the figure was about 30% (my memory is approximate) with many people, deprived of oxygen for any amount of time, showing some physical or mental damage.
It sounds as if the professionals were being professional and the women, however fine their intentions, were led astray by "a little knowledge" and media myths. But I wasn't there and wouldn't have known who was right (probably) even if I was.
Mel Gibson is not responsible but he knows who is.
6 - John Spivey
Because of my work with junior high kids in the outdoors I have had to be CPR certified annually for the last nine years. As my instructor always said, "When you perform CPR, you are working on a dead person." That is, they have no pulse and no breathing. Doing something is better than nothing at this point. If they have a pulse and no breathing, then you perform rescue breathing.
Ribs do get broken a lot, even by the pros. Chest compression on a child is inviting broken ribs. The depth of compression varies with body size. Also, I forgot the exact statistic, but something like 2/3 people die anyway after CPR since a lot of the cases involve heart attacks.
I'm surprised that these lifeguards weren't vigorously defended and the higher ups didn't use the occasion as an opportunity to educate the public.
7 - John Guilfoil
John, spot on.
8 - Jack
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