Successful CPR Save in Canton, IL

From the Canton Daily Ledger:
During the 12 minutes it took for emergency services to arrive, the dispatcher talked Curtis through CPR and helped him try to save his mother’s life. Curtis doesn’t remember getting tired throughout the ordeal.
Rescue personnel took over for Curtis. They immediately loaded her into an ambulance and took off for Graham [...]

Robot Nurse’s Aide

Had to post it, simply because the picture’s so cool…From Medgadget:
Japanese-led research team said it had made a seeing, hearing and smelling robot that can carry human beings and is aimed at helping care for the country’s growing number of elderly.

Croup and Humidity

From Forbes:
A time-honored treatment to ease the seal-like bark of croup is to bring your child into a steamy bathroom or run a cool-mist vaporizer in her room until symptoms subside.
However, a new study suggests that these measures probably won’t have much effect on croup symptoms.
“The use of humidity failed to show any improvement in [...]

Medicaid and ER’s in Missouri

From the Kansas City Star:
Medicaid cuts enacted last year have led some low-income Missourians to reduce their spending on food and utilities to pay for their health care, according to a survey released Tuesday.
The report suggests the state should monitor the effects of the Medicaid cuts on people and on government, including whether the cuts [...]

ER Medicaid Boost in NY

From WCAX.com:
Hospitals may be getting more money for emergency care for the poor.
For the first time in 15 years, both the Republican-led Senate and Democratic-controlled Assembly have raised the per-visit rate.
The current rate for Medicaid patients is 95 dollars. The proposed rate would be 150 dollars.
Lawmakers estimate the rate increase would cost 23 (m) million [...]

EMS Week May 14-20

From ACEP:
The American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) today announced the 33rd annual Emergency Medical Services (EMS) Week will be celebrated throughout the nation May 14-20, 2006. The event brings together local communities and medical personnel to publicize safety and honor the dedication of those who provide the day-to-day lifesaving services of the medical “front [...]

Resuscitation Outcomes Consortium (ROC) Hypertonic Saline with Dextran

From JEMS (the University of Iowa is part of this study):
The ROC consists of 10 resuscitation centers and one coordinating center. It’s working on collaborative prehospital and early hospital clinical trials looking for instances of cardiopulmonary arrest and life-threatening trauma. Sponsors for this initiative include the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, the U.S. Department [...]

MDCalc

From Medgadget:
Well medbloggers, the time is here. Readers, meet MDCalc, The Clinical Calculator. MDCalc, meet the readers. MDCalc is a free website to help you do the medical calculation grunt work.
I got tired of wading through Google searches to find a calculator for all those medical calculations that you often have to use, but don’t [...]

Plavix + Aspirin: Impairment rather than improvement?

From CNN.com:
Some people taking the blood thinner Plavix on top of aspirin to try to prevent heart attacks, as many doctors recommend, now have good reason to stop.
The drug combination not only didn’t help most people in a newly released study, but it unexpectedly almost doubled the risk of death, heart attack or stroke for [...]

Anyphylaxis Underdiagnosed, Undertreated?

From Medpagetoday.com:
Life-threatening anaphylactic reactions to foods are under-diagnosed and under-treated, both in the community and in the emergency room, according to researchers here.
So found two studies — from Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston and the Albany (N.Y.) Medical College — that were reported at the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology meeting here. [...]