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Why Heart Patients Should Order Their Pizza Delivered

… because the pizza deliveryman might just save your life. From The Associated Press:

LAKEWOOD, Colo. — Ordering a pizza may have saved George Linn’s life.

Linn’s wife says he had just gone into cardiac arrest Friday when the pizza deliveryman knocked on the door of their Colorado home to bring their order. Kami Linn says she opened the door to “some burly-looking dude” and immediately asked for help.

The deliveryman, Chris Wuebben, happened to be a paramedic recently returned from Iraq.

Kami Linn says Wuebben performed CPR on her husband and revived him. Other paramedics who later arrived then took over. George Linn remains hospitalized in the intensive care unit.

Kami Linn says her husband has a history of heart problems.

-WesMusings of a cardiologist and cardiac electrophysiologist.

*This blog post was originally published at Dr. Wes*

Paramedic Rap

The Sudden Cardiac Arrest Foundation has held a “You Can Save a Life” video awareness contest, in which participants were invited to submit videos that raise awareness of cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and automated external defibrillators (AEDs). The 2010 grand prize winner is “Paramedic Rap” by 911 Emergency ROCKsponse, a college team that uses humor to get your attention about sudden cardiac arrest:

For more videos of contestants and previous competition winners, head over to the foundation’s YouTube channel.

*This blog post was originally published at Medgadget*

Using Rap To Teach CPR

Earlier this week we facetiously found out how sex is being used to teach CPR. Now the American Heart Association is turning to rap to teach CPR basics in its Be The Beat campaign:

*This blog post was originally published at KevinMD.com*

Hands-Only CPR: No More Mouth-To-Mouth

Man collapsedBy Barbara Ficarra, RN, BSN, MPA

You witness an adult collapse to the ground. What do you do? Would you just stand by and watch? Would you call 911?  Would you initiate CPR?

Research reveals that bystanders have been reluctant to perform CPR on a person who drops to the ground because they’re hesitant about putting their mouth on a stranger’s mouth. Read more »

*This blog post was originally published at Health in 30*

Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) Training on iPhone

Federico Semeraro shared iCPR Lite, a great iPhone application, with me. Cardiopulmonary resuscitation is a crucial procedure and everyone, I mean everyone, should be trained to be able to perform CPR any time when needed. This iPhone application helps you how to do it.

icprlite2

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More about it on D-Sign

*This blog post was originally published at ScienceRoll*

Latest Interviews

IDEA Labs: Medical Students Take The Lead In Healthcare Innovation

It’s no secret that doctors are disappointed with the way that the U.S. healthcare system is evolving. Most feel helpless about improving their work conditions or solving technical problems in patient care. Fortunately one young medical student was undeterred by the mountain of disappointment carried by his senior clinician mentors…

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How To Be A Successful Patient: Young Doctors Offer Some Advice

I am proud to be a part of the American Resident Project an initiative that promotes the writing of medical students residents and new physicians as they explore ideas for transforming American health care delivery. I recently had the opportunity to interview three of the writing fellows about how to…

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Latest Book Reviews

Book Review: Is Empathy Learned By Faking It Till It’s Real?

I m often asked to do book reviews on my blog and I rarely agree to them. This is because it takes me a long time to read a book and then if I don t enjoy it I figure the author would rather me remain silent than publish my…

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The Spirit Of The Place: Samuel Shem’s New Book May Depress You

When I was in medical school I read Samuel Shem s House Of God as a right of passage. At the time I found it to be a cynical yet eerily accurate portrayal of the underbelly of academic medicine. I gained comfort from its gallows humor and it made me…

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Eat To Save Your Life: Another Half-True Diet Book

I am hesitant to review diet books because they are so often a tangled mess of fact and fiction. Teasing out their truth from falsehood is about as exhausting as delousing a long-haired elementary school student. However after being approached by the authors’ PR agency with the promise of a…

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