Paramedics' skills

[SusanDoris]

On the PM programme today a series of reports on the stabbing   of Jo McPhillips two years ago started with what happened. It seems that the two paramedics did manage to re-start his heart  after about 25 minutes. Apart from the unstinting admiration and respect we all feelfor the work that paramedics do, I wonder how they would have accessed the heart directly? It would appear that they had to make an incision in order to drain some of the blood away, but does anyone have any idea of how they would have got past the rib cage, since speed is vitally important? I tried putting a question in google, but obviously I did not phrase it in a way that prompted an answer.

The perpetrators of such vicious crimes should be made to do a paramedics course while they are in prison. Although I'm afraid that this would not make much of a dent in the number of killings, and of course the money and skilled trainers are not available for such a pie-in-the-sky idea..

[wigginhall]

I think open chest massage is rare, but most accounts say, "open the chest", presumably with rib spreaders.  It can be done manually, I think, prior experience recommended!  But normally, you are talking CPR plus defribillation.

[SusanDoris]

I think open chest massage is rare, but most accounts say, "open the chest", presumably with rib spreaders.  It can be done manually, I think, prior experience recommended!  But normally, you are talking CPR plus defribillation.

Thank you for your reply. I'll look up rib-spreaders later. In the PM item, Michelle McPhillips was talking to the two paramedics who said that they had done the heart massage procedure a certain number, about twenty I think they said,  of   times. And such people take on that sort of responsibility as part of their job - and that is awe-inspiringly brilliant, especially when you think of all the different kinds of situations they are faced with.