X-Message-Number: 5172
From:  (David Stodolsky)
Subject: Re: SCI.CRYONICS -- Ontario Emergency Cardiac Care Symposium
Date: Mon, 13 Nov 95 21:07:34 +0100

Ben Best <> writes:
>     In his keynote address, Dr. Safar reviewed the history of CPR (CPCR).
> Dr. Safar believes that it is not feasible to expect Advanced Cardiac Life
> Support units to be able to reach urban cardiac arrest victims in less than
> ten minutes. But a victim cannot tolerate more than 3-5 minutes of 
> normothermic ischemia without serious damage to brain cells occuring 
> with any attempt to restart brain circulation with current technology.

In connection with the UN Conference on Social Development earlier
this year, Prof. Amitai Etzioni of George Washington Univ. reported
on a social experiment carried out in, I think, Seattle, WA. The City
had decided that every resident should be provided with CPR if needed.
However, when the costs of getting EMR people to every location in the
City in time, including tops of tall buildings, etc., were calculated, 
it became clear, that it was out of the question.

An alternative approach of training the population to do CPR was adopted.
A big ad campaign made people aware of free CPR courses and about 30%
of the City's residents eventual were certified. This made it likely
that any heart failure case in the City would get aid within a minute or two. 
A side effect of this effort was a change in the social climate of
the City. In most big US cities, the idea of someone walking behind
you on the street is not one which brings any comfort. After this
education campaign the feeling in Seattle was changed totally.

Etzioni is the editor of "The Responsive Community -- The only communitarian
quarterly." 714 Gelman Library, George Washington Univ., Washington,
DC 20052 (Tel.: 202 994 8142, Fax: 202 994 1639).

dss

David S. Stodolsky      Euromath Center     University of Copenhagen
   Tel.: +45 38 33 03 30   Fax: +45 38 33 88 80 (C)


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