Tag: Howard Snitzer

What Emergency Medical Services Can Teach Us About Keeping Patients Alive & Capnography

Chris Cebollero, a nationally recognized emergency medical services (EMS) leader, author, and advocate recently wrote an article, “Capnography: What EMS chiefs and leaders need to know”. In this article, Mr. Cebollero writes about how capnography may improve patient care and outcomes:

While assessing patients, the knowledge we gather from vital signs allows our clinicians to make precise diagnoses and employ the appropriate management and treatment. Capnography is often referred to as the seventh vital sign, and can be used in intubated and nonintubated patients. Combining all vital sign information, especially as they change over time, allows our personnel to drill down on both ventilation and perfusion status.

A great example of using capnography to assess a patient is Howard Snitzer. Continue reading “What Emergency Medical Services Can Teach Us About Keeping Patients Alive & Capnography” →

Physician-Patient Alliance for Health & Safety Turns 4 Years Old

The Physician-Patient Alliance for Health & Safety (PPAHS) today celebrates its fourth anniversary.

PPAHS posted its first blog on July 27, 2011, “Is it possible to survive 96-minutes without a heart beat?”.

This post featured what happened to Howard Snitzer, who suffered a heart attack outside of a grocery store in Goodhue, Minnesota. Two volunteer paramedics responded and began a 96-minute CPR marathon involving 20 others, who took turns pumping his chest. Continue reading “Physician-Patient Alliance for Health & Safety Turns 4 Years Old” →

Breathing Easier with Capnography – A New Standard of Care?

Fifteen years ago ambulances did not use capnography.  Now, medical professionals predict that, within the next five years, capnography will become the “staple technology” of an emergency responder’s standard of care.   If true, the legal ramifications are apparent.

by Peter A. Corsale (Gallop, Johnson & Neuman, L.C., St. Louis, Missouri)

The Center for Medicare and Medicaid forecasts that between 2010 and 2020, the average annual health spending growth (5.8%) will outpace the annual growth in the overall economy by 4.7% and comprise 19.8% of the GDP ($4.6 trillion).  With such amounts dedicated to health services, patients expect their physicians and medical care facilities, regardless of their location (urban vs. rural), to keep abreast, adapt, and use new technology.  There is little doubt that patients equate new technology with better and safer service. Continue reading “Breathing Easier with Capnography – A New Standard of Care?” →

Would monitoring have saved Justin Micalizzi?

by Michael Wong

As recounted in the article, “A Family’s Search for Truth”:

On January 15, 2001, Justin Micalizzi, a healthy 11-year-old boy, was taken into surgery to incise and drain a swollen ankle. He was dead by 7:55 a.m. the next day, leaving behind two grieving and bewildered parents who desperately wanted to know why their son had died …

Continue reading “Would monitoring have saved Justin Micalizzi?” →

Is it possible to survive 96-minutes without a heart beat?

Howard Snitzer survived 96-minutes without a heart beat thanks to dedicated volunteer paramedics and a device called capnography.

by Michael Wong

According to the Wall Street Journal:

A little known device is shaking conventional wisdom for reviving people who suffer sudden cardiac arrest: People may be able to go much longer without a pulse than the 20 minutes previously believed.

To see the Mayo Clinic video on Howard Snitzer, please click on the photo below: Continue reading “Is it possible to survive 96-minutes without a heart beat?” →