Would a non celebrity receive 1 hour of CPR/resuscitation attempt?

The doctors at UCLA (one of the best hospitals in the world) worked on Jackson for one straight hour in attempt to resuscitate him. Is that typical? Would Jane Anonymous get one hour?

http://blogs.nzherald.co.nz/blog/blogger-bites-back/2009/6/26/michael-jackson-suffers-heart-attack-reports/?c_id=1502833&objectid=10580848

"He suffered cardiac arrest at his home. However cause of death is unknown until the results of a post mortem.

"His personal pysician, who was with him at the time, attempted to resuscitate my brother, as did the paramedics as they transported him to Ronald Raegan Medical Center in Los Angeles.

"Upon arrival at approximately 1.14pm a team of doctors including emergency physicians and cardiologists attempted to resuscitate him for a period more than hour - they were unsuccessful.

give it a rest won't you...

They even tried inserting a pacemaker to get her heart going...

So..yeah I think docs will keep working til they are sure there is nothing to be done...

just as Jane Anonymous might have, or eventually must.

Sometimes, no amount of resuscitation attempts works.

Death eventually comes for us all, no matter how wealthy or famous we are.

It knows no inequities.

So there's really not much point in arguing that somehow Michael Jackson got a better deal than Jane Anonymous.

aid all citizens.

A good friend of mine works there. They see everyone.

Yes, that includes UCLA

and she was in a life threatening situation then yes she would. It's the law.

...it also depends on the wishes of the family.

EMTs are dedicated. If they have the time, they will do all they can, as long as they can. I speak from experience similar to Michael Jacksons (victim who is a good friend was saved, took over an hour - was a good friend of mine and "died" twice before going to hospital).

Good thing to have if you don't want to be a partially-there veggie run by machines.

Not for an hour, though. I think it depends on the people doing the resuscitating and the overall circumstances. It also could be that some people are deemed more special than others. Suck on that, if you will. It's the truth. Sadly.

and she had nothing.

It didn't work.

Such is the way of the world.

I really get sick sometimes of the whiners. It's as if the rich and famous are somehow able to cheat death with their money, while the rest of us cannot.

Maybe they can do it longer, sometimes, but they can't forever.

When they loaded that body in the white sheet into the van to take it to the coroner, I couldn't tell whether the guy in it was MJ or some homeless person off the street.

Death is the great equalizer.

There's no class issue here. Please do the decent thing and leave this alone.

It all depends on the circumstances and the patient's overall condition and specific malady at the time of the CPR.

she spent the next 28 years in a Terry Schivo like state until her parents finally removed the feeding tube a couple months ago.

If I'm every found in cardiac arrest and no one knows how long I've been like that I hope they just let me go.

Half her life. I spotted her obit in the paper one Sunday and have to admit that I was shocked she was still alive. I had not been to visit her in years and ahd lost track of what nursing home she was in.

Only a couple of her old friends went to the funeral and her dad really did seem to appreciate that we remembered.

watch any hospital documentary on A&E or discovery channel and you will know that this was not extra-ordinary. People are determined to whine tonight.

Maybe now we do.

Chill. We don't all watch teevee medical dramas as you apparently do.

come to think of it.

Bill Moyers Journal.

So, I'm medical ignorant.

that you have not dealt with end of life decisions for yourself or your loved ones. You should look into that stuff. It is part of life.
I had to make decisions about my father when I was very young. The fact that we'd already made plans made things much better. My mother, well, it is my job to over see her 'advance directives'.
None of that was on 'teevee'.

about Jackson. When I realized he was in trouble, I called 911 and then ran to my neighbor, a doctor to help me. The ambulance came five minutes later but I'm afraid he didn't have much in the way vital signs although my neighbor was giving him CPR. They took him away to the hospital and really worked to resuscitate him both in the ambulance (we were following behind and could see what they were doing) and in the hospital afterwards. After an hour they stopped and the time of death was pronounced. I live in California and I don't think he got special treatment.

I'm so sorry Cleita about your husband. I can imagine that was such a painful time, and that
you still miss him so much.

Our neighbor down the street experienced the same thing. He passed out, and his wife tried to resuscitate him, to no avail. She
has been a paramedic, and she knew what to do. She gave him cpr until the paramedics arrived. The worked on him the entire
way and for a while in the hospital. They only stopped after his wife told them it was ok to call the death.

It's just so hard isn't it?

Thinking of you.

I don't mean to bum any one out. I thought I should express my experience because people seem to think that the first response and ER people don't care unless you are a celebrity.

from some of the celebs we take care off (yes I got those too), all the way to the street bums who die alone, and afraid with one of us holding a hand. Yes, been there too, the last one to give a caring hand to somebody scared.

Hugs.

Now don;t get mer wrong, there are a few people in the field who shouldn't and thankfully they usually don't stay. But most of the people I served along side, care... deeply.

Hugs.

And between you and me, many a times it is easier to take care of the bums, or the common people. VIP medicine has its own joys... and paparazzi.

I just wanted to emphasize this point you made... because it is a beautiful point.

...your story, and to let everyone know that those in the medical professional work
very hard to save people--regardless of income or celebrity.

You aren't bumming anyone out.

We learn from each other when we share our life experiences.

we pulled it off once, but failed every other time.

He was young enough where that would be done.

and circumstances

The patient we pulled through was highly hypothermic, and it took us two and a half hours to warm enough to get a stable rhythm at the trauma bay. It took every paramedic, doctor and nurse taking turns.

There are cases where no, you don't like crushing skull injuries

But if there is a shred of hope, you do. The final say is the family and whoever is in charge of the code, and chiefly calling it.

Oh and protocols

Oh I should add that patient left the hospital with no consequences, cold injuries are weird

The person was dead for two and half hours and they breezed out of the ER, after all of that?

Geez...I can only imagine the stuff you've seen. Talk about experiencing the human conditions.

I have so many questions, but I'm afraid to ask any of them!

when we got to him his body temp was in the sixties, we think.

He'd not been breathing for a while either.

So we started the rewarming and CPR... they did the central lines at the hospital...

We tubed and moved

That was the first time we ever used the hypothermia protocols as well

I guess two weeks before nobody would have gone that long.

Family member in their low 30's had sudden cardiac arrest, no pulse for well-over 10 minutes, CPR by somone with limited training while in middle school. Took many attempts by EMS to restart heart. EMS began inducing hypothermia coma. Hospital maintained coma for several days, slowly bringing her out. (NOTE: Doing it too fast would trigger a die-off of brain cells.) During the second week, most cognitive functions returned. She is now nearing a full recovery.

Around here and in many other places, induced hypothermia became the standard treatment for sudden cardiac arrest starting 3-4 years ago. Patients are transported to hospitals set up for this, often passing other ERs.

Our family was fortunate that where she lived also had a treatment center, that someone performed CPR - continuing chest compressions for over 10 until the EMS arrived, that her heart finally restarted after repeated attempts, and that we were blessed with a miracle.

and he was in such bad shape he should have been a DNR but mom wouldn't go for that.

If someone has a chance of being revived, it's up to the medical staff to try to revive someone.

This was in SE Texas, not CA, but they did CPR, etc, for a long time before declaring her dead.

Whether they were found conscious/unconscious...the causation of their arrest...whether they were in PEA or Asytole....Many factors.

months ago. I am eternally grateful for that.

Me too. I consider myself blessed, I was given a second chance.

:toast:

I heard your chances are much better the sooner they get you hooked up.

Was yours, by chance, a portable? I brought the idea up to my boss about having one in our office.

Glad you made it!

to put a stent in the main artery to the heart. It was extremely touch and go. But I agreee with you about the portables. There is a national cardiac arrest survivors group who are now campaigning to get the portables in schools, workplaces etc.

At his house? That's weird. Had he been feeling ill and called him?

The doc was there, and had attended to him the night before.

...gave him an injection of Demerol before his breathing slowed then stopped.

I'm afraid this will be a case of a doctor administered overdose.

an 8th Grade education who lived in a mobile home got 45 minutes of CPR. At which point his heart actually started beating again. Of course, every other organ in his body was deader than a doornail, but by god they got his heart going.

and wouldn't be around today if paramedics hadn't busted their asses. For that, you will NEVER hear me say a word against EMTs and Paramedics.

I would think that any Dr. would hate to lose any patient ... except maybe a Dr. who listens to Rush Limbaugh/Michael Savage/Glenn Beck ...

I don't think medical people care about celebrity status their goal is to save the life if it's at all possible.

My fucking condolences to all the scabs, thieving bankers, paramilitary funders (Shell, Chiquita Banana, Chase, etc. etc.) who are so "misunderstood" by the poor and working classes who do not accept the obvious superiority of the rich and who ENVY them for having the courage to steal and immiserate whole nations for profit!

Go read an Ayn Rand novel and leave the worker bees alone. And by the way, Michael Jackson wasn't rich. He was broke. Not that anyone has even mentioned his bank balance but you...

to read the OP? Here is the subject line "Would a non celebrity receive 1 hour of CPR/resuscitation attempt?"

Now review my post, to which you responded. Note that I mentioned neither Jackson nor his bank account. Broke? Probably not. Hidden monies in various shelters? Probably.

they worked her every time. 2 hours. They tried to keep her alive to find out what the underlying thing was that was killing her so they could save her.

(post mortem autopsy - She was bleeding to death from a punctured inferior vena cava from a trapezoid filter designed to trap blood clots.) The cardiac arrest was a result of simply bleeding to death, they never discovered the underlying problem, and could not bring her back on the last arrest.

My grandfather died of an aortic aneurysm. They worked him VERY hard. He ended up on life support...and that was basically only to let us all get there to let him go while a dozen of us covered his body with hugs while he passed.

So yeah, they work people hard if there is no history or obvious fatal trauma even if they do not know your name.

ER personnel will try as hard as they can..most normal people will try everything to save someone. Only the most heartless or those lacking the most basic of empathy won't in a sudden situation like cardiac arrest.

Emergency Physicians and cardiologist would work very hard to save the life of patient, absolutely.

announcement.

The lack of a pulse in the ambulance. The EMTs were able to get my mom's pulse back, but she passed anyway.

tell when it's hopeless right away, sometimes you get some encouraging signs that don't pan out in the end. Also depends on why they're in arrest to begin with--some circumstances are better than others. A younger person, or a drowning in cold water, or an electrical shock, or a drug overdose may result in more successful resuscitations than an old guy who has a history of prior MI's, quintuple bypass and valve replacement.

But that's socialized commie medicine.