Dr. Albert Schweitzer: The Day I Met My Role Model

Most cultures value life and bringing persons back from the dead is a popular subject of many fictional books. However, as technology evolves and the story of Frankenstein reborn with a bolt of lighting has come true with the external or implanted defibrillators, the natural process of death slows as much of society gains the knowledge to live longer than nature intended. The Red Cross Association taught many organizations like the girl and boy scouts the methods of mouth-to-mouth resuscitation and Cardiopulmonary resuscitation or CPR, a manual manipulation of the heart, as life saving methods for drowning, electrocution or heart attacks. First aid for laypersons to save lives as well as

Topic 1). Let's begin with the basics... What is CPR? It is a live saving procedure done by performing chest compressions to pump the heart in order for it to circulate blood and deliver oxygen to the brain. Who knows what CPR stands for? (pause) CPR stands for cardiopulmonary resuscitation.

Have you ever thought about what you would do if a family member suddenly stopped breathing? Imagine that you grow up in a small town, the population is 700 people, and one morning you wake up and everyone in the town is dead. On any given day 670 people die of sudden cardiac arrest. Could it be a loved one, someone you care deeply for, or just a complete stranger? The chances are that someone in your family is going to die of sudden cardiac arrest in your lifetime. On average it takes an ambulance no less than seven minutes to reach someone in need, therefore, every adult should know how to administer CPR.

What laid in my hand was my literal golden ticket to the world. This small, flimsy card could take me anywhere I wished to go to in New York City but I didn’t enjoy this privilege all my life. I grew up in a neighborhood where my family and I didn’t need to travel far for a doctor’s checkup or a grocery run. My whole world consisted of a few streets in Brooklyn. Unfortunately, my parents could neither drive nor afford many rides on our MetroCard. I had seen places like the Empire State Building and Central Park merely in pictures so the inner adventurer in me yearned to see what was outside Brooklyn.

Clipboard and stethoscope in hand, I walked toward the double doors that flashed emergency in bright red letters above. It was my first clinical shift as an EMT student, and first day jitters flittered around in my stomach, I had no idea what to expect. However, I was not expecting to witness the fragility of life. About a half an hour into my shift the rapid response alarm blared through the emergency room. I turned to my preceptor and quizzically asked what this meant. “A rapid response is a patient who is in need of immediate medical care and intervention. As an EMT who is part of the rapid response team you will be expected to assist with vitals and chest compressions. Let’s head toward the recess room, and I’ll explain more there.” Eventually, we reached the recess room, and the rapid response team was already there preparing for the arrival of the patient. A nurse was on the phone with the firefighters that were bringing the patient in. Seconds later she announced “It’s a STEMI”. Then fright ran through my veins. A STEMI is medical jargon for a segment elevation on an EKG. In other words the patient’s coronary artery is completely occluded. The patient is suffering from a heart attack. Prior to this, I had never seen someone who was having a heart attack. However, the thing that terrified me the most was that I knew I would be expected to perform chest compressions. I had only ever performed chest compressions on a dummy.

Using Gibbs Reflective Cycle (1988), I will reflect on the CPR experience during the Clinical Stimulation Lab (CSL). I will discuss the knowledge and skills I have gained, however indicate in my action plan what things I need to further develop.

Charging to 200....Stand clear…Shocking! CPR....EMS providers experience the adrenaline and rush of a patient in cardiac arrest. Trying to bring dead back to life is not a simple task by far, especially with the limitations and resources of the field. But, what happens after the patient makes it to definitive care? Annually, around 300,000 adults in the United States experience out-of-hospital cardiac arrests (AHA), and EMS providers only see the results of the short term survival of the patient, but rarely the actual patient care and recovery after an arrest. Patients undergo intense, aggressive treatment and recovery measures in the hospital post-code. These patients have a variety of treatment regimens

I stood with a look of wonderment as I watched the beehive of physicians, radiologists, nurses, and paramedics collaboratively save a man’s life. The scene initially appeared chaotic with scrubs flying around and doctors swarming all over, but in actuality the team was extremely single-minded—as if driven by instinct. I was amazed by the speed and conviction with which the attending doctor made his decisions; his training and experience was evident with every move. Seeing the tearful wife thank the doctor highlighted the impact of his work—his actions had saved a husband and a father. I left admiring both the competency of emergency physicians and their ability to touch lives in such a dramatic way. While my enjoyment of high school biology sparked my original inclination towards medicine, my first hand experiences in the hospital deepened my motivation and left me steadfast in my decision to become a doctor.

There are many moments in one 's life, where a choice has to be made , but there are only a few times where one collides with a split second decision. Although you only have a few breaths, a minute at most, to decide what to do, your decision, impacts the rest of your life. Simon Wiesenthal 's had many times in his 96 years of life, where he faced difficult choices , yet the one he faced the day he spent at the bedside of a German soldier was undoubtedly a moment which shaped the rest of his life . Dying Karl Seidl, the soldier in question, told Simon of the deeds he committed, towards the Jews, but as the final attempt to cleanse himself of his actions, Seidl asked Wiesenthal for forgiveness. Whatever choice Simon made, would lead

In the first chapter of The Checklist Manifesto by Atul Gawande, “the Problem of Extreme Complexity”, Gawande recalls a story of a little girl from Austria, who fell into an icy pond for thirty minutes and was later fished out. Her parents performed mouth to mouth for several minutes while waiting for a helicopter to take her to a hospital. She was unresponsive for two hours, in most cases victims are pronounced dead, but the medical staff was determined to save her life. In a small hospital, they managed to work on her for hours cutting her open, shoving tubes in her to replace the blood, and drilling holes in her skull to release pressure. She woke up a week later from a coma with only a couple paralyzed limbs and lesions which can heal over

Modern medical expertise has achieved remarkable achievements in lengthening the lives of humans. Ventilators can support a patient’s weakening lungs and pills can sustain that patient’s bodily processes. For those patients who have a genuine chance of surviving a sickness or accident, medical technology is science’s greatest gift to mankind. For the terminally ill, however, it is just a means of prolonging suffering. Medicine is supposed to alleviate the suffering that a patient undergoes. Yet the only thing that medical technology does for a dying patient is give that patient more pain and agony day after day and cause them to spend more money that could go to help their family after the patient passes away. Some terminal patients in the past have gone to their doctors and asked for a final medication that would take all the pain away— lethal drugs. For example, imagine a woman who was suffering from a severe case of rheumatoid arthritis, begged her doctor to assist her to die because she could no longer stand the pain. Another example is a lady with an inoperable brain

This paper will be going over a scenario involving a real patient and what things could have been different with EMS care. It will also be covering what exactly cardiac arrest is and what rhythms produce it. And for every cardiac rhythm in cardiac arrest, there is a specific treatment plan paramedics can follow.

Traditionally, the physician was expected to use all of their talents and training in an effort to save the life of their patient, no matter the odds. More recently, the physician’s role has been redefined to preserve the autonomy of the patient. Now physicians must give life saving care only in so far and to the degree desirous of the competent patient.

WEEK 5 PICO(T) QUESTION 1Good Afternoon Class and Dr. Stephenson,In and out of the hospital high quality cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) is crucial to survival of victims of cardiac arrest. This research topic will focus on implementation of in hospital chest compressions in CPR. It will be based on a comparison of the efficacy of manual compressions and automated chest compressions in relation to survival outcomes. The potential attributes and short comings related to manual and automated chest compression will be reviewed. Intensive care unit (ICU) nurses have to be prepared to implement CPR during a cardiac arrest code. In consideration that patients in the ICU are often only marginally stable it is important that ICU nurses are familiar with their patient’s recent and past medical histories.

D. Thesis - Organ donation and Transplants are the most remarkable success stories in the history of medicine. They give hope to