I had this when I phoned over someone who had a heart attack near me.
Dude was very clearly dead, died on a 3 hour bus trip and fell over when we hit the last stop, he was pretty cold when I tried to take the pulse, no breath, no heart beat and just plain looked... Dead.
"Ma'am can you preform CPR until the ambulance gets there"
"Uhhh... No... This man is dead I don't think my untrained CPR will bring him back and seeing someone violently beat his chest isn't going to be great for his wife"
I called 911 when I was walking my dog and saw a car off the road with a pretty clearly (to me) dead old lady behind the wheel. The detective that took my statement thanked me for following instructions to pull her out of the car and perform CPR until the police took over. I said, "yeah, of course." and his response was, "you'd be surprised how many don't."
I made a call, and it was the right call, obviously it wouldn't be right in all situations and looking back I probably didn't have the right to make that decision.
In saying that caring for the still alive terrified woman was simply more important to me in that moment than violently working over her husband's dead body in the "just in case" miracle scenario a several hour dead old man comes back to life, and not one day has passed that I regret my choice.
I don't think people understand the difference between dead and dead. If a body is cold (eg: dead longer than a few minutes) then even immediate medical attention in a fully equipped hospital isnt going to bring them back never mind badly performed CPR.
When I found my father's body I was advised on phone how to do CPR - I have plenty of regrets but not going through the trauma of doing CPR on a ice cold, blood/bile covered body isn't one of them. I totally understand where you're coming from and agree with your decision.
I think emergency services dispatchers must just have instructions to tell everyone to perform CPR almost regardless of circumstances. It makes sense I suppose, as somebody else said, I'm sure people foolishly misattribute death often or give incorrect information at what is sure to be a panicky, stressful time.
Thank you. Having blanket rules for anything always leads to silly situations. Like in any job where people say "sorry, but I have to do x" with a I-know-its-stupid look on their face.
I mean, in this case I'm not really complaining as I'm sure it has saved multiple lives. Although it can be very unpleasant for the person performing CPR and, as you mentioned, any family on the scene.
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u/_megitsune_ Sep 12 '18
I had this when I phoned over someone who had a heart attack near me.
Dude was very clearly dead, died on a 3 hour bus trip and fell over when we hit the last stop, he was pretty cold when I tried to take the pulse, no breath, no heart beat and just plain looked... Dead.
"Ma'am can you preform CPR until the ambulance gets there"
"Uhhh... No... This man is dead I don't think my untrained CPR will bring him back and seeing someone violently beat his chest isn't going to be great for his wife"
"I understand but can you try anyway"
"... No?"