Nothing makes my heart sink more than a C1 “confirmed cardiac arrest, 90 year old male, CPR instructions being given”.

Driving through the pouring rain and darkness towards another encounter with death and sadness is nothing short of pathetic fallacy.

1/x

I’m not ageist, I’m sure some 90 year olds benefit from CPR, however I’ve been around long enough to know that most don’t.

The misappropriation of the term ‘cardiac arrest’ to people who have died peacefully is symptomatic of one of the biggest failures of modern medicine.

2/x

We are so geared up with lifesaving drugs and equipment and algorithms and fears of the coroner that CPR is the norm. It is the easier option.

3/x

It’s so pervasive that when a 90 year old dies peacefully in their sleep and their family call 999 as they don’t know what else to do, a whirlwind of blue lights and CPR instructions begins that takes some real effort to stop.

4/x

The myth of successful CPR is perpetuated daily by TV and fiction, yet it’s brutality and lack of dignity often remain untold.

5/x

CPR is wholly appropriate for those with healthy bodies who have a sudden, reversible event causing their heart to dysfunction.

Here, aggressive clinical interventions can literally pull someone from the jaws of death, and being involved in that care is an amazing thing.

6/x

But for those whose body has become weak, have succumbed to illness, have naturally declined in their health and reached the point their heart and body can no longer continue, CPR is unfair, undignified, and unkind.

7/x

Warmth, comfort, pain and symptom relief, home, family, love. They are the appropriate interventions. Not CPR.

8/x

The ambulance service has come such a long way with end of life care in even the few years I have been a part of it, in no small part thanks to legends such as @zurritojim , but sometimes it feels we still have such a long way to go.

9/x

Anyway, hope the #morningmusings of a new CCP aren’t too depressing an introduction to your Sunday!

I’m going to get a coffee

10/10