| It is Spider Season, Be aware of what is out there.  In the west (and most of the country) we are aware of two spider bites that we need to concern ourselves.
They are the Black Widow and the Brown Recluse, The Brown Recluse is often known as the “Hobo” or “Fiddler” spider.They both are pretty nasty spiders, the good thing about the Black Widow, is that it will try and leave you alone, try to get out of your way. So if a Black Widow bites you, it is pretty much your fault. The Brown Recluse on the other hand will “hunt you down”. It is known to be in the dry areas, wood piles, dry brush (so campers beware) and under your home in the crawl spaces.
What follows are pictures and quotes from various web pages in the attempt to inform and keep you safe this summer.
An article by Susan Donaldson James posted on abcnews.com as quoted By Rod Brouhard, About.com Guide May 24, 2010, tells the story of a woman who lost her breast from what may have been a toxic spider bite. The woman, Victoria Franklin, and her doctor say the spider was a brown recluse. Franklin lives in Atlanta, which is indeed located in the brown recluse's known habitat. Doctors told Franklin that she had been bitten by a brown recluse spider, a virulent little arachnid that is seen mainly in the south central part of the United States.Patients report "an abrupt stinging or itching sensation," followed in hours by a painful pimple that within 24 to 48 hours becomes black and necrotic."It's a nasty little spider that can cause skin destruction and make an ulcer and let infection in, and in some reported cases it can be very dramatic," said Dr. Marcel Casavant, chief of pharmacology and toxicology at Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus, Ohio."If you Google it, you can see people losing an arm," he said. "But there are 20 or 30 other things that can do the same thing."  The brown recluse occurs in 15 states, one of them the northern part of Georgia where Franklin lives, according to the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture in Seattle.Inside the home, these spiders can be found in dark spots in the bath, garages, closets and cellars. They can nest in boxes of stored clothes and books. Plenty of red, raised welts are blamed, either correctly or incorrectly, on spider bites. Despite the belief by many victims that spiders are responsible for their pain, spider bites are usually harmless. Indeed, most true spider bites go unnoticed and untreated. However the Brown Recluse spider need not be ignored.
| | Man age 60 dies while performing CPR on Wife age 59! Maybe I just don't get it. I must get asked daily if it is true we don't have to give breaths and can just do Hand Only CPR?
My standard answer has been NO! I say NO, again. Just when I think the situation is put to rest so I can get on with teaching The American Heart Association releases a marketing piece promoting a "hands only CPR" Kit. Let me show you what AHA released just a few weeks ago as it pertains to "hands only CPR".
It states, "If a bystander is not trained in CPR, the bystander
should provide Hands-Only™ (compression-only) CPR for the adult victim who suddenly collapses, with an emphasis to “push hard and fast” on the center of the chest, or follow the directions of the EMS dispatcher. All trained lay rescuers should, at a minimum, provide chest compressions for victims of cardiac arrest. In addition, if the trained lay rescuer is able to perform rescue breaths, compressions and breaths should be provided in a ratio of 30 compressions to 2 breaths."
They go on to clarify, "Hands-Only (compression-only) CPR is easier for an untrained rescuer to perform and can be more readily guided by dispatchers over the telephone. However, for the trained lay rescuer who is able, the recommendation remains for the rescuer to perform both compressions and ventilations."
Though an argument can be made that some CPR is better than no CPR, There are many more considerations to be made. Such as, is the victim an adult or under age 8? Is this a drowning victim? Is this an unwitnessed or witnessed cardiac arrest. Much more to consider.
Though Scotsdale Arizona Fire Department has seen an increase of success when hands only is applied, one must consider that they are physically more able to withstand the vigors of hands only.
It is still my opinion that more discussion needs to take place and analysis made of the results for hands only. Hands only assumes you can do chest compressions at 100 plus rate for a long period of time. The two breaths would at least allow the rescuer time to relax their arms, take their own breaths and to prepare for yet another 30 compressions. In Joyce on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington State a Man (age 60) died giving CPR to his wife (age 59). They lived 16 miles east of Port Angeles, WA. I wonder if he was giving breaths or just giving "Hands Only" CPR? The article doesn't say, but I imagine the Ambulance took more than 10 minutes to arrive. This emphasises that CPR is a physical activity, I question if any one can do CPR without breaths at 100 beats per minute for very long. (http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2014597621_cpr26m.html?syndication=rss)
Just Think About it.
(2010 American Heart Association Guidelines for CPR and Emergency Cardiovascular Care, Oct. 18, 12:30 a.m. EST)
| | Safety, An Employers ResponsibilityAre your employees safe?
Each employer is responsible to make sure that there are first-aid trained personnel available to provide quick and effective first aid to fellow employees and customers. Most states have a statute that says along the lines as
“In the absence of an infirmary, clinic or hospital in near proximity to the workplace, which is used for the treatment of all injured employees, a person or persons shall be adequately trained to render first-aid.”
Besides this trained individual, Employers are to make sure appropriate first-aid supplies are “readily available.” What does this mean, does this mean you must spend hundreds of dollars on a first-aid kit that makes the local clinic envious? No, it does not, it does mean that the first-aid kit be adequately stocked to be appropriate for potential hazards in the respective work areas. Hands-Only CPR revisited: In an article I found online at About.com “First Aid” the article titled “What if I don’t know conventional CPR and Hands-Only CPR is not recommended?” (Updated Oct. 24, 2010 by Rod Brouhard) we find: “What if I don't know conventional CPR and Hands-Only CPR is not recommended?
The American Heart Association (AHA) recommends Hands-Only CPR as the treatment for adults who collapse in front of you. However, the AHA recommends conventional CPR with mouth-to-mouth as well as chest compressions for kids, adults found already unconscious, and for drowning victims. What if you don't know conventional CPR -- should you do nothing?
Answer: You should call 911 and push on the chest.
On the FAQ page of its website, even the AHA recognizes that if you only know Hands-Only CPR and you discover an adult already unconscious, you will need to do something. The organization recommends Hands-Only CPR in that case, but it ignores the issues of kids and drowning victims.
There's no substitute for proper CPR training, but not everybody has that. If the only thing you are willing or able to do is push on the chest until help arrives, then push on the chest.
If you do nothing, a victim of cardiac arrest will die -- regardless if he or she is a kid, an adult, or a drowning victim. If you do something, he or she might live. It's that simple.
The AHA is the leader in cardiac arrest treatment science, but there are other cardiac experts who think that Hands-Only CPR has more uses than what the AHA is recommending. In fact, I believe the AHA will upgrade its recommendations to focus even more on chest compressions and less on rescue breathing in the 2010 CPR Guidelines.
No matter what: take a CPR class. Proper training might mean the difference between life and death for someone you love or someone you just met.”
I want to point out that Hands-Only CPR is only recommended for the “Untrained Responder” who has never taken a CPR class.!!!
Remember, Hands-Only will only marginally help the following class of victims:
1. Adult (unwitnessed collapse) an adult is anyone over the age of puberty. Defined as chest hair on males and breast development on female.
2. Water Victim, for a drowning victim Hands-Only will not help, they must have air enter so the water can be displaced.
3. A child (under the age of puberty, see definition above at number 1). Hands-Only will not help a child as they do not go directly into Sudden Cardiac Arrest. Children first go to Respiratory Distress, then respiratory failure and then finally SCA. Once a child gets to SCA, they have less than at 12% chance of survival.
If you have taken a class in CPR, the
industry expects you to do Mouth to
Mouth with CPR
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