CPR and AED Training For Hockey Players

[Wonder35]

It may be a stretch to include life saving equipment and training within this topic but here I go anyway,

As we approach the anniversary of these 2 on ice incidents I feel duty bound to remind my fellow 'tenders of the importance we place on these items.

Do you know where the Automated External Defibrillator is located in your local arena?  Is anyone on your team trained in its use?

What about performing CPR?

At the very least is a cellular phone nearby when you're on the ice?  Does it have a strong signal?  We discovered that the phone we always left on our bench had a weak signal and was useless the first time we really needed it.

In 2007 our team decided to purchase our own AED because some arenas didn't have one while others kept them under lock and key in the office, rather useless when time is of the essence.

Yes, we are a senior team, minimum age 55, but please don't ever assume that youth makes you bullet proof. Recently we had a similar situation in a high school gym incident.

Enough preaching, enjoy and learn .................

P.S. This is not a paid commercial on behalf of John Brown Sports. I had just received my new gear and it shows.

[Naz]

One of the teams I play with also purchased our own AED, because, as you stated, in many of the rinks we play in, the one provided is nowhere near convenient or easy to access.

[coopaloop1234]

Great topic. I don't even think I could tell you where the AED is at any rink I play at. Luckily most have excellent cell reception.

A few years ago there was a guy who had a heart attack on the ice in the game before ours. Luckily one of the guys on his team was a paramedic and was probably the biggest reason he survived. Very scary stuff to witness but this is a great PSA.

[chile57]

+1 I was on the ice for this incident and without the AED (and somebody knowledgeable on its use) it'd have been trouble.

https://www.henryford.com/services/cardiology/patient-stories/sheldon-brafford

[FFMedicGoalie]

I have been a paramedic for close to 15 years, I can tell you this, all of the true cardiac arrest saves I have worked, meaning they walked out of the hospital neurologically intact, had one thing in common, quality bystander CPR. Push hard and push fast, even if you dont have an AED, CPR really saves lives. 

[CJ Boiss]

10 hours ago, FFMedicGoalie said:

I have been a paramedic for close to 15 years, I can tell you this, all of the true cardiac arrest saves I have worked, meaning they walked out of the hospital neurologically intact, had one thing in common, quality bystander CPR. Push hard and push fast, even if you dont have an AED, CPR really saves lives. 

I seem to recall that the recommended CPR practice nowadays is, if you are performing it by yourself, not to bother with breaths and to just keep doing chest compression's. Is that true?

[FFMedicGoalie]

5 hours ago, CJ Boiss said:

I seem to recall that the recommended CPR practice nowadays is, if you are performing it by yourself, not to bother with breaths and to just keep doing chest compression's. Is that true?

Yes this is true, the science being that the blood is oxygenated enough to keep the brain and heart alive long enough. The reduction in cardiac output from pausing compressions is much worse. 

[CJ Boiss]

25 minutes ago, FFMedicGoalie said:

Yes this is true, the science being that the blood is oxygenated enough to keep the brain and heart alive long enough. The reduction in cardiac output from pausing compressions is much worse. 

If you've got two people doing CPR, does it make sense to include breaths again? (reasoning being that two people would be able to do the breaths and resume compressions with much less lost time than if you had one person trying to do both)

[FFMedicGoalie]

1 hour ago, CJ Boiss said:

If you've got two people doing CPR, does it make sense to include breaths again? (reasoning being that two people would be able to do the breaths and resume compressions with much less lost time than if you had one person trying to do both)

The AHA recommendation is 30-2 compression to breath ratio for 2-rescuer CPR. That being said, if you dont have a pocket mask and dont know the person, are you going to do mouth to mouth? Most people dont and that was one of the original ideas behind hands only CPR, because there is one certainty in CPR, when you ventilate, whether mouth to mouth or mask, or even a bag-valve mask we use, they will vomit. So AHA decided why not remove one of the reasons lay people dont do CPR and hopefully when someone near you goes down, you'll do something. 

[Scythe]

8 hours ago, CJ Boiss said:

I seem to recall that the recommended CPR practice nowadays is, if you are performing it by yourself, not to bother with breaths and to just keep doing chest compression's. Is that true?

It's called hands only CPR