What I Learnt Today

You learn a lot of stuff as an intern in the Accident and Emergency Department at St Vincent’s Hospital. Some of the stuff you learn is even related to medical science.

St Vincent’s is located in what Millie would call ‘the fun part of town’.

During one shift,  a young man ran in yelling wildly – “Quick, quick, we need a doctor! Just around the corner!” 

My registrar Bill told me to come with him. I suspect against all protocols, we ran out of the hospital and followed this bloke through the winding back streets of Darlinghurst, and eventually into a boarded up old terrace house. The front room was very dark, but we could make out a few people tripping out. They ignored us, and we were lead straight past them.

A big fat guy was sprawled on his back across the small courtyard of the house. He was naked apart from a pair of rather incongruent frilly undies. He was clearly not breathing, and had begun to turn blue. He was drenched with water – his friends had dragged him into the back garden to hose him down to see if he would wake up. He had been sick.

It was not a pretty sight.

I was faster than Bill and had reached the scene just before him. But while I was remembering the A,B and C of resuscitation, and wishing we had brought a bag and mask (the kiss of life was not looking attractive), my senior colleague ran past and took charge.

Bill had worked in St Vincent’s for years, and knew everything about everything, especially in the eyes of we very naive interns. He was very big, very loud, and was becoming my hero.

Bill stepped up to our new patient, drew back his big right Doc Marten boot, and kicked the guy’s right hip.

We all heard the patient draw in a big breath.

Bill kicked him again. Another breath. And again. Sounded like someone sucking through a straw. His colour started to improve ( he went from dark blue to light blue)

I hadn’t read about the Doc Marten CPR technique in our textbook. Perhaps I had missed that lecture.

We rolled him onto his side.

“Lembke – stand here and keep kicking him till I get back” – commanded my registrar.

So I did. Kick – breath – kick – breath – kick – breath.

A few minutes of kicking (seemed like ages) and Bill returned with some Narcaine and an ambulance to take him back to the hospital.

One hour later, back at St Vincent’s, Bill called me in to Resus Bay 2 to wave goodbye to our patient. He was still unsure whether to be happy with us for saving him, or unhappy that we had injected him with Narcaine and therefore wasted his hit.

I was glad to see that he could walk without a limp.

I was reminded of all this by a new training video on how to perform CPR.

Last year I did my annual CPR refresher course, with Oro and his dummies from Reviva. (Oro ran a very smooth operation).

It appears that Bill was ahead of his time, at least in his approach to the kiss of life.

Mouth to mouth resuscitation is now an optional part of the Australian Resuscitation Council’s CPR guidelines. 

“If unwilling or unable to perform rescue breathing, then perform compression only CPR”

Effective rescue breathing is a learned skill. Rather then have people hesitate, or avoid doing CPR because of a fear of doing it incorrectly or a reluctance to perform mouth to mouth breathing, it’s better for people to get stuck in to the chest compression bit.

The US guidleines and UK guidelines also recommend that compressions are the priority – CAB rather than ABC.

I think that British tough guy actor Vinnie Jones would be an ideal choice to play the part of my registrar Bill when demonstrating the Doc Martin CPR technique.

However, the British Heart Foundation have already chosen him for their Stayin’ Alive Campaign, and he features in this terrific video. 

Vinnie will teach you a lesson you’ll never forget.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Its more fun to buy running shoes than it is to go running.

Merlin Mann

TUAW (The Unofficial Apple Weblog) today has a list of the top apps to kickstart your New Years Eve Resolutions.

How’s your 2Do list? Scanning? Note syncing? Diet? Fitness?

How about keeping track of your resolutions? There’s an app for that, too.

There’s no problem that technology can’t make more complicated. .

Meanwhile, Lifehacker encourages us all to start 2012 with ‘Inbox Zero’.

Cool, only 2400 emails to go!.

 

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New Year’s Day… now is the accepted time to make your regular annual good resolutions. Next week you can begin paving hell with them as usual.

Mark Twain

“If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. Then quit. No use being a damn fool about it.” 

W.C. Fields

Professor Richard Wiseman has tracked 5000 people attempting to stick to their New Years Resolutions.

10% succeeded.

What factors were common to those who were successful?

• 1. They broke their goal into a series of smaller steps.
• 2. They told their friends and family what they were trying to achieve.
• 3. They regularly reminded themselves about the benefits of reaching their goal.
• 4. They gave themselves a small reward each time they obtained one of their small steps.
• 5. They mapped out their progress.

 

 

 

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I don’t think New Year’s resolutions can’t technically be expected to begin on New Year’s Day, don’t you?  Since, because it’s an extension of New Year’s Eve, smokers are already on a smoking roll and cannot be expected to stop abruptly on the stroke of midnight with so much nicotine in the system.  Also dieting on New Year’s Day isn’t a good idea as you can’t eat rationally but really need to be free to consume whatever is necessary, moment by moment, in order to ease your hangover.  I think it would be much more sensible if resolutions began generally on January the second.

 

Helen Fielding, Bridget Jones Diary

 

Last year my resolution was to keep a blog of What I Learnt Each Day.

WILT had 350 posts in 2012!

Thanks for your comments and support.

What is your resolution for 2012?

Lifehacker has these “Top Ten Easy to Keep Recommendations“

• 10. Create and Stick to a Realistic Budget
• 9. Get a Better Education
• 8. Make New Friends
• 7. Keep Your Home Cleaner
• 6. Start Working Out
• 5. Learn a New Skill
• 4. Get That Promotion (or New Job)
• 3. Reboot Your Sleep Cycle
• 2.Eat Healthier
• 1.Back Up Your Data

If it was easy, everyone would do it.

However, there are plenty of tips on how to achieve each of these recommendations on the LifeHacker site.

“Be at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let every New Year find you a better man.”

Benjamin Franklin

Is there a difference between a goal and a resolution?

Blogger Gretchin Rubin spent a year “test-driving the wisdom of the ages, current scientific studies, and lessons from popular culture about how to be happier. Plutarch, Samuel Johnson, Benjamin Franklin, St. Thérèse, the Dalai Lama, Oprah, Martin Seligman…I cover it all.”. As part of ‘The Happiness Project” she started a daily blog.

She makes this distinction.

“You hit a goal, you achieve a goal. You keep a resolution.

I think that some objectives are better characterized as resolutions, others, as goals.

“Run in a marathon” or “Become fluent in Spanish” is a good goal. It’s specific. It’s easy to tell when it has been achieved. Once you’ve done it, you’ve done it!

“Eat more vegetables” or “Stop gossiping,” or “Exercise” is better cast as a resolution. You won’t wake up one morning and find that you’ve achieved it. It’s something that you have to resolve to do, every day, forever. You’ll never be done with it.

But it can be easy to get discouraged when you’re trying to hit a goal. What if it takes longer than you expected? What if it’s harder than you expected? And what happens once you’ve reached your goal? Say you’ve run the marathon. What now – do you stop exercising? Do you set a new goal?

With resolutions, the expectations are different. Each day, I try to live up to my resolutions. Sometimes I succeed, sometimes I fail, but every day is a clean slate and a fresh opportunity. I never expect to be done with my resolutions, so I don’t get discouraged when they stay challenging. Which they do.”

Good luck with your resolutions in 2012.

 

 

 

 

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