# Gotta love Bystanders!!



## divinewind_007 (May 3, 2007)

A little background on this person. The other crew had been called to this lady twice this day for seizure activity. Both times she refused and signed a refusal. The 3rd time was a charm though and we got her.

Dispatcher calls us and says she wants to go to the hospital now and get checked out from her earlier episodes. We go in-route and they advise us by-standers report her as having a seizure  and not breathing. Were thinking she is just postictal. Luckily our station was only 1 minute away. We pull up and my partner says oh crap there doing CPR. I think i responded oh S*** seeing as we had just got off a code 45 minutes before. As were running over there we could here her groaning. Guy stopped CPR as we got to them. She was now on her side puking and writhing in pain. I noticed other bystanders patting CPR guy on the back and holliering you saved her. Apparently dispatchers did not tell them to check for a pulse, and for some reason even after she was moving and groaning he never stopped. 

So we loaded her up and took her to the hospital. She seized one more time on us as we pulled her into the ER. When she came around the she was complaining of chest pain too. Wonder why!!!  We talked to the Doc. and he done a chest x-ray. She only had 3 broke ribs!!! OUCH!!!

I had heard stories from other crews of bysatnders doing this....this was the first time i had actually seen someone do CPR on a live person.


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## bstone (May 3, 2007)

Ouch. CPR on a live person. Ouch.


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## DOCMEDIC (May 4, 2007)

I have seen that before... Only the patient threw up on the bystander doing the CPR on his down stroke..  Full throttle projectile in the face... We had to chuckle before taking over...


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## MMiz (May 4, 2007)

I can imagine this happening quite a bit.  Ouch.


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## Tincanfireman (May 4, 2007)

I'm glad she survived being "rescued"  Lucky girl, in more ways than one...


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## FF/EMT Sam (May 4, 2007)

And I assume that assault charges will be filed against the bystander?  I mean, Good Samaritan laws notwithstanding, anyone who does CPR on a patient who is moving and moaning needs to have some major **** come down on them.


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## firecoins (May 4, 2007)

no no no!  Don't charge the guy with assault.  He did what he thought was right.  He was wrong but he tried. He needs to be sentenced to a CPR class.


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## FF/EMT Sam (May 4, 2007)

I may have been exaggerating when I said to charge him with assault, but if he lacks that much common sense, I don't want him doing CPR on *ANYBODY!*


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## firecoins (May 4, 2007)

as I said, he should be sentenced to a CPR course.


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## BossyCow (May 4, 2007)

I think the most classic example of this was a call where a guy passed out drunk in his kitchen.  Face planted into the counter on the way to the floor, knocking his glasses into his nose.  His son, who witnessed the event, also a bit worse for ETOH, saw him passed out, knew it couldn't be beverage related because  "We hadn't been drinkin' _that_ long! Immediately started doing "CPR".  Now this guy hadn't had classes in it, but he's seen episodes of 911 and Baywatch and he knows what to do.  And ya know... after a couple of 'rescue breaths' darn if Dad didn't come around... proving that the son did know what he was doing because he saved his life.. right there.... I think the best part was watching our MPD hear this story from the son in the ER and saying with a straight face.. "Wow.. that makes you quite a hero doesn't it?"


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## divinewind_007 (May 4, 2007)

FF/EMT Sam said:


> I may have been exaggerating when I said to charge him with assault, but if he lacks that much common sense, I don't want him doing CPR on *ANYBODY!*




this guy was not cpr trained....he was told how to do CPR over the phone by the dispatcher. dispatcher failed to mention to have him check for a pulse.


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## BossyCow (May 4, 2007)

And apparently the 'check for responsiveness' was also left out.


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## firecoins (May 4, 2007)

divinewind_007 said:


> this guy was not cpr trained....he was told how to do CPR over the phone by the dispatcher. dispatcher failed to mention to have him check for a pulse.



actually, my CPR class says to not check pulse but that is during CPR.


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## fm_emt (May 6, 2007)

divinewind_007 said:


> I had heard stories from other crews of bysatnders doing this....this was the first time i had actually seen someone do CPR on a live person.



I stopped someone from doing exactly that last year sometime. The bystander was about to start CPR and was so far off of where he should have been that I politely intervened and pointed out that the patient a)was breathing and b)had a strong & steady pulse. 

The pt was just out after getting clocked in a mosh pit at a Social Distortion concert.


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## Margaritaville (May 22, 2007)

Too funny, I'll have to use that as an example to my students.


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## Ian Philbrick (May 23, 2007)

*Pulse check for CPR*

Hi all,

The current AHA guidelines has done away with pulse check for lay people.

The dispacher should ask if the patient is responding? If not, then is the patient breathing? If not, bystander to do CPR, and continue until patient starts breathing,wakes up or EMS arrives.

Regards,


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## mfrjason (May 24, 2007)

DOCMEDIC said:


> I have seen that before... Only the patient threw up on the bystander doing the CPR on his down stroke..  Full throttle projectile in the face... We had to chuckle before taking over...



I would of too cuz bystanders arent equipped like we are to handle CPR on a live person,I always carry a CPR mask with me where ever I go cuz I never know what Im going to run into.


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## Mercy4Angels (May 27, 2007)

it was the dispatchers fault. citizens are not prepared to do this stuff. nor are they qualified to. the dispatcher should have walked them through better. or seriously if your an minute away. wait.


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