However, as an aside, tourists and visitors to Mexico and other “developing” nations should investigate medical evacuation insurance. The air ambulance from Miami/Fort Lauderdale takes about a day or so to arrange, requires around $13000 US cash or credit card in hand before they will even lift off from Florida and then 3 hours round trip. It is not something to be taken lightly. We residents don't have the option of the insurance and, as good as our major medical policy is, it will not reimburse air ambulance evacuation costs.
I here add a quoted text from the Medical News Today story. I want it to be exact, and am not a medical professional, but I sincerely hope that many people will visit these sites and consider one of the fine courses the AHA or the Red Cross offer.
Bystander Cardiocerebral Resuscitation involves three simple steps:
1. Direct someone to call 911 or make the call yourself.
2. Position the patient on the floor. Place the heel of one hand on the center of the chest with the other hand on top of the first. Lock your elbows and perform forceful chest compressions at a rate of 100 per minute. Lift your hands slightly after each push to allow chest to recoil. Take turns with a bystander until paramedics arrive.
3. If an automated external defibrillator (AED) is available, attach it to the patient and follow the machine's voice instructions. Otherwise, keep pumping.
NOTE: Gasping is not an indication of normal breathing or recovery. Initiate and continue compressions even if patient gasps. For cases of suspected drowning, drug overdose or collapse in children, follow guideline CPR (2 mouth-to-mouth breaths for every 30 chest compressions).
However, and it is an important “however”, all physicians are not created equal in the US, UK or here. We have a very fine cardiologist in the nearest city, Chetumal, who has cared for my heart for the past 8 years and now has my wife's under control with medications. This cardiologist is equal to, or better than, my upstate New York cardiologists. After my heart attack, he charmed my wife, and has enough equipment to make a viable diagnosis, enough competence and compassion to control the situation. In him we hit the jackpot. Conversely, the local barefoot doctor should be hung by his primitive toes.
Article comments
1 - David Gonzalez
When I was a paramedic, we were taught that tilting the head back would cause the epiglotis to block the airway. Now I'm seeing in many First Aid websites that tilting the head is back. Can this be true? I am now running an international NGO, and am not current in CPR technique changes. I live in a quite poor country, where emergency services all almost inexistent (reason for which most people die due to lack of emergency treatment on the scene) and I have considered creating/establishing an effective EMS center in various provinces, to help save lives. If anyone knows about these changes in CPR techniques, and their proven effectiveness, please, visit our website for the email address to write to me.
2 - hhhhh
hey hows it goin?