The more complicated we make resuscitation, the worse the outcome.

The more ALS we use, the worse the outcome.

While there are limits to how simple we can make resuscitation - apparently just compressions and defibrillation, maybe a cold shower - there seem to be no limits to what people will try in order to make it more complicated.

Hello, AHA: How about some guidelines that reflect the research?

Hopefully this also cancels out the icky factor involved with pre-arrival rendering of care.

Eliminate many of the objections to providing CPR, but increase the effectiveness. What could be better?

Why did you label this post as 'heresy' ?

Anonymous,

This post was not labelled heresy. I do label many of my posts as heresy. Science is heresy.

Science is taking the established ideas (orthodoxy) and checking to see if they actually work. It is important to know if our treatments are helping patients or hurting patients.

The best ideas are heretical.

There is a quote from Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead. A wonderful play from Tom Stoppard, made into a movie with Tim Roth, Gary Oldman, and Richard Dreyfuss. A must see for fans of Shakespeare, fans of the absurd, fans of statistics, and fans of great dialogue.

The Player: We're more of the love, blood, and rhetoric school. Well, we can do you blood and love without the rhetoric, and we can do you blood and rhetoric without the love, and we can do you all three concurrent or consecutive. But we can't give you love and rhetoric without the blood. Blood is compulsory. They're all blood, you see.

Guildenstern: Is that what people want?

The Player: It's what we do.

I might change it to -

We're more of the education, heresy, and debate school. Well, we can do you heresy and education without the debate, and we can do you heresy and debate without the education, and we can do you all three concurrent or consecutive. But we can't give you education and debate without the heresy. Heresy is compulsory. They're all heresy, you see.

The AHA is in fact endorsing compression only CPR for lay people in the general public.

Lungs,

Thank you.

That is very important. They also need to move away from the ALS that is still in the ACLS - except for potentially reversible conditions. I tend to view this as all one big resuscitation approach - BLS and ALS. Although this post was just about BLS, I subconsciously include the ALS problems, as well. And for EMS, the ventilations are still there. Augh!

The BLS contributes a lot, but does not get enough attention. The ALS may interfere with the contribution of the BLS, but it receives much more attention. This is backwards.