I think the current three-part episode has been pretty good from a dramatic standpoint, shoddy from a medical standpoint – but then we’re talking Grey’s Anatomy here.
Graham looks at the CPR from last night’s episode – the ratio was probably shortened because increasing the frequency of mouth-to-mouth is much more dramatic. Also watching 30 compressions in a row doesn’t make for good television.
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The timeline wasn’t explicitly stated, but to be underwater so long that you turn bluish green, the oxygen deprivation following would almost certainly kill or severely brain damage the person, right?
Does it really matter if CPR is done exactly as recommended? I can understand why there would be a standardized method so it could be taught more easily, but if you do 20 compressions instead of thirty or some other similar variant, will it really make any difference?
Any CPR is better than none, but with the success rate at 5-10%, it’d be nice to perform it as effectively as possible to try to wedge your way into that small margin.
I don’t know–they were doing a lot of rapid cutting back and forth between cameras, I mean, they could have at least said “27, 28, 29, 30,” instead of “3, 4, 5.”
Simple stuff to do.
The rate and number of compressions are vital to get good results from CPR…lots of research to that end. The part that bugs me the most is that the whole disaster scene is covered in Red Cross supplies and they still don’t bother to get CPR correct!
The part that bugs me the most is that the whole disaster scene is covered in Red Cross supplies and they still don’t bother to get CPR correct!
Correct? I was irritated that they didn’t get it even close to correct! However, if you consider that it’s not CPR, but rather TVR… It’s almost palatable.
Almost.
I am one of the physicians who helps develop the CPR guidelines and teaching materials for the American Heart Association (AHA), and I am glad that folks are concerned about how CPR is depicted in the media — so am I. I know its “just a TV show”, but a lot of folks get important impressions from TV… we are trying to collect examples of bad CPR on TV to discuss at the AHA, if any of you can point us to specific TV shows/episodes, we’d be grateful (and you’d possibly be doing the world of CPR teaching a service!)
Email any tips or clips to resuscit@resuscitationatpenn.com
thanks!
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