Sudden Death and the Myth of CPR
Sudden Death and the Myth of CPR is for anyone who has taken a CPR course or who believes the images from television dramas. It is also for families of victims and survivors of CPR. It will engage emergency personnel, others in the medical field, and anyone concerned with ethical issues of death and dying.

Anyone who has ever taken a CPR course has wondered, "What would happen if I actually had to use CPR?" In Western societies, the lifesaving power of resuscitation has the status of a revered cultural myth. It promises life in the face of sudden death, but the reality is that lives are rarely saved. Medical researchers estimate the survival rate for out-of-hospital CPR to be between 1 and 3 percent. Sudden Death and the Myth of CPR explores the history of this medical innovation and the promotion of its effectiveness.

The overuse of resuscitation, Timmermans explains, defines people's experience with sudden death, something he learned firsthand by following the practice of lifesaving from street corner to emergency room. He argues that very few people are successfully resuscitated without brain damage despite the promotion of CPR's effectiveness through powerful media images. In vivid accounts of the day-to-day practices of cardiopulmonary resuscitation in one of the only studies o f sudden death, Timmermans records the astonishingly frank comments of emergency personnel. Doctors, nurses, social workers, and  paramedics express emotions from cynicism about going through the futile motions to genuine concern for victims' family members.

If a person who  was supposed to keep on living dies at the end of a resuscitative attempt, how socially meaningful is the dying? Timmermans asks tough questions and addresses the controversial ethical issues about the appropriateness of interfering with life and death. He suggests policy reform and the restoration of dignity to sudden death.
"1101600291"
Sudden Death and the Myth of CPR
Sudden Death and the Myth of CPR is for anyone who has taken a CPR course or who believes the images from television dramas. It is also for families of victims and survivors of CPR. It will engage emergency personnel, others in the medical field, and anyone concerned with ethical issues of death and dying.

Anyone who has ever taken a CPR course has wondered, "What would happen if I actually had to use CPR?" In Western societies, the lifesaving power of resuscitation has the status of a revered cultural myth. It promises life in the face of sudden death, but the reality is that lives are rarely saved. Medical researchers estimate the survival rate for out-of-hospital CPR to be between 1 and 3 percent. Sudden Death and the Myth of CPR explores the history of this medical innovation and the promotion of its effectiveness.

The overuse of resuscitation, Timmermans explains, defines people's experience with sudden death, something he learned firsthand by following the practice of lifesaving from street corner to emergency room. He argues that very few people are successfully resuscitated without brain damage despite the promotion of CPR's effectiveness through powerful media images. In vivid accounts of the day-to-day practices of cardiopulmonary resuscitation in one of the only studies o f sudden death, Timmermans records the astonishingly frank comments of emergency personnel. Doctors, nurses, social workers, and  paramedics express emotions from cynicism about going through the futile motions to genuine concern for victims' family members.

If a person who  was supposed to keep on living dies at the end of a resuscitative attempt, how socially meaningful is the dying? Timmermans asks tough questions and addresses the controversial ethical issues about the appropriateness of interfering with life and death. He suggests policy reform and the restoration of dignity to sudden death.
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Sudden Death and the Myth of CPR

Sudden Death and the Myth of CPR

by Stefan Timmermans
Sudden Death and the Myth of CPR

Sudden Death and the Myth of CPR

by Stefan Timmermans

eBook

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Overview

Sudden Death and the Myth of CPR is for anyone who has taken a CPR course or who believes the images from television dramas. It is also for families of victims and survivors of CPR. It will engage emergency personnel, others in the medical field, and anyone concerned with ethical issues of death and dying.

Anyone who has ever taken a CPR course has wondered, "What would happen if I actually had to use CPR?" In Western societies, the lifesaving power of resuscitation has the status of a revered cultural myth. It promises life in the face of sudden death, but the reality is that lives are rarely saved. Medical researchers estimate the survival rate for out-of-hospital CPR to be between 1 and 3 percent. Sudden Death and the Myth of CPR explores the history of this medical innovation and the promotion of its effectiveness.

The overuse of resuscitation, Timmermans explains, defines people's experience with sudden death, something he learned firsthand by following the practice of lifesaving from street corner to emergency room. He argues that very few people are successfully resuscitated without brain damage despite the promotion of CPR's effectiveness through powerful media images. In vivid accounts of the day-to-day practices of cardiopulmonary resuscitation in one of the only studies o f sudden death, Timmermans records the astonishingly frank comments of emergency personnel. Doctors, nurses, social workers, and  paramedics express emotions from cynicism about going through the futile motions to genuine concern for victims' family members.

If a person who  was supposed to keep on living dies at the end of a resuscitative attempt, how socially meaningful is the dying? Timmermans asks tough questions and addresses the controversial ethical issues about the appropriateness of interfering with life and death. He suggests policy reform and the restoration of dignity to sudden death.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781439905135
Publisher: Temple University Press
Publication date: 06/02/2010
Sold by: Barnes & Noble
Format: eBook
Pages: 272
File size: 847 KB

About the Author

Stefan Timmermans is Assistant Professor of Sociology at Brandeis University and is widely published on the topic of health care.

Table of Contents

CONTENTS

Foreword by Bern Shen, M.D.
Preface

Introduction: What They Didn't Tell You in Your CPR Course
      The Myth of CPR
      How Dignified is Sudden Death?

1. Death Awareness in the United States
      The Emergence of Death Awareness
      Hospice Care
      Right-to-Die Movement
      The "Good" Death
      Toward a Dignified Sudden Death?

2. The Search for the Best Resuscitation Technique
      The Royal Humane Society
      The Resuscitation Techniques of the Royal Humane Society
            The Vital Principle
            The Schafer Technique
      Resuscitation Research in the United States
            Manual Artificial Ventilation Methods
            The Obstructed Airway
            Mouth-to-Mouth Ventilation
            Chest Compressions
      The Origins of Resuscitation Beliefs

3. CPR for All
      Professional Versus Lay CPR
      Patient Transportation
      Consolidation of the Emergency Medical System
      Survival Rates
            The Chain of Survival
            Some CPR Is Better Than No CPR
            What Is Survival?
            Number-to-Number Inflation
      The Economic Cost of Saving Lives
      Universal Lifesaving

4. Lifesaving in Action
      Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation
      Paramedics
      The Emergency Department
      Ritual, Medicalization, and Community

5. Deciding Life and Death
      Reaching Decisions
      Initial Impressions
      Dead on Arrival
      The Rush of the First Minutes
            The Resuscitation Team
            Retrieving Clinical Information
            Circumstances of the Cardiac Arrest
            The Patient's Social Viability
      Resuscitation Trajectories
            Legal Death Trajectory
            Elite Death Trajectory
            Temporary Stabilization Trajectory
            Stabilization Trajectory
      Social Inequality of Sudden Death

6. "There Is a Code and a Code"
      The Routines of Emergencies
      Becoming a Resuscitator
      Major Categories
            The Successful Resuscitative Effort
            The Bad Resuscitative Effort
            The Tragic Resuscitative Effort
            The Non-Category
      Personal Philosophy
      Comfort with Sudden Death

7. Saving Life or Saving Death?
      Resuscitation Ethic
      More Effective CPR
      Empowering Relatives and Friends
      Family Attendance
      Final Reflections

Appendix: Methodology
Notes
References
Index
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