Tonight I watched someone die ....
My immediate neighbour in the marina, Darrin, is a doctor, and at about 5pm I heard the security man come to his boat and shout "Doctor, Doctor come..someone is dying !" Darrin said who, where ?.....the security man said follow me. As Darrin was climbing off the boat I said to him, remember I have a defibrillator.....later I thought I should have just grabbed it and gone with him. Anyway 3 minutes later I see Darrin running back this way, so I grab the defibrrillator and climb off the boat. meeting him on the dock, come on he said, she's down...
We run to the boat where the woman is, on board her husband is doing CPR assisted by two others. She's not breathing...we put the defib pads on and confirm she has a good rhthym - its the airway that's the issue...the next 40 minutes is spent trying to clear her airway and get her to breathe...the security man calls the ambulance...but its in Lautoka 30 minutes away...everyone takes it in turns to do chest compressions and breathing but its clear her lungs are full of fluid ..we have no suction equipment or oxygen...so the only way is to try to get her to push it out..lifting her up head down and banging her back.....that proves impossible and after a while her pulse is getting weaker and the rhythm is not so good...lack of oxygenated blood ...and eventually her heart stopped....the husband asked me to use the defibrillator...I tried to explain that it would be of no use...as she had no cardiac electrical activity...but I did it anyway, 3 times...and no result.
Then the ambulance arrived...but really more of a small bus than an ambulance...not very well equipped...so even if it had arrived earlier it wouldn't have made any difference.
I think maybe I need to augment my medical supplies with some disposable suction apparatus.
What happened ? well she was sanding some teak on the top sides and complained of pains in the neck and then feeling giddy...sounds maybe like a trans ischaemic attack (popularly known as a mini stroke)...she then fell over and collapsed ... she may have vomited and then inhaled it .....or she may have a had a cerebral haemorrage...she was certainly unconscious and any signs of breathing were probably agonal breaths rather than respiration.
My immediate neighbour in the marina, Darrin, is a doctor, and at about 5pm I heard the security man come to his boat and shout "Doctor, Doctor come..someone is dying !" Darrin said who, where ?.....the security man said follow me. As Darrin was climbing off the boat I said to him, remember I have a defibrillator.....later I thought I should have just grabbed it and gone with him. Anyway 3 minutes later I see Darrin running back this way, so I grab the defibrrillator and climb off the boat. meeting him on the dock, come on he said, she's down...
We run to the boat where the woman is, on board her husband is doing CPR assisted by two others. She's not breathing...we put the defib pads on and confirm she has a good rhthym - its the airway that's the issue...the next 40 minutes is spent trying to clear her airway and get her to breathe...the security man calls the ambulance...but its in Lautoka 30 minutes away...everyone takes it in turns to do chest compressions and breathing but its clear her lungs are full of fluid ..we have no suction equipment or oxygen...so the only way is to try to get her to push it out..lifting her up head down and banging her back.....that proves impossible and after a while her pulse is getting weaker and the rhythm is not so good...lack of oxygenated blood ...and eventually her heart stopped....the husband asked me to use the defibrillator...I tried to explain that it would be of no use...as she had no cardiac electrical activity...but I did it anyway, 3 times...and no result.
Then the ambulance arrived...but really more of a small bus than an ambulance...not very well equipped...so even if it had arrived earlier it wouldn't have made any difference.
I think maybe I need to augment my medical supplies with some disposable suction apparatus.
What happened ? well she was sanding some teak on the top sides and complained of pains in the neck and then feeling giddy...sounds maybe like a trans ischaemic attack (popularly known as a mini stroke)...she then fell over and collapsed ... she may have vomited and then inhaled it .....or she may have a had a cerebral haemorrage...she was certainly unconscious and any signs of breathing were probably agonal breaths rather than respiration.