# NYC implementing hospital hypothermia protocol for cardiac arrest



## LucidResq (Dec 4, 2008)

NY Times: City pushes cooling therapy for cardiac arrest.



> Starting on Jan. 1, New York City ambulances will take many cardiac arrest patients only to hospitals that use a delicate cooling therapy believed to reduce the chances of brain damage and increase the chances of survival, even if it means bypassing closer emergency rooms.


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## firecoins (Dec 4, 2008)

Interesting.  Sounds like a _cool_ idea. 

The one example used in the article did not receive cooling packs until he had already been revived and not until a transport ambulance put ice oacks on him.


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## marineman (Dec 5, 2008)

Sounds like a darn good thing to try to me. I heard of the therapy before but didn't know that some areas were starting to bypass ER's to get it. 

On a side note, somewhere in the article it says "Most patients who suffer total cardiac arrest outside hospitals die because their brains have been starved of oxygen." Can one of you smart people either verify that or put the kibosh on it for me? I was taught that when doing CPR we are more likely to over-oxygenate the patient and because there's little to no neuro-muscular action such a small amount of oxygen is used that it takes a long time to burn up what they already have in their blood. I thought that combined with keeping the BP up more was the reason the AHA keeps upping the compressions per breath.


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