The power of music

[Loki[D.d.G]]

[url="http://edition.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/07/02/cpr.cardiac.arrest/index.html"]Disco tune saves man's life[/url]

Debra Bader was taking a walk in the woods with her 53-year-old husband one morning when suddenly he collapsed. At first she thought the situation was hopeless.

"I looked at him and said, 'He's dead,' because he wasn't moving or making any sounds at all," Bader remembers. "But I pulled the cell phone out of his pocket and called 911, and then a public service announcement I'd heard on the radio popped into my head."

The one-minute PSA from the American Heart Association instructed listeners, in the event of cardiac arrest, to perform chest compressions very hard to the beat of the 1970s Bee Gees song "Stayin' Alive." When someone suffers cardiac arrest, as pop singer Michael Jackson did last week, the heart stops functioning completely, and brain death begins within four to six minutes if the victim doesn't receive help.

"I sang the song and gave directions to the EMTs at the same time. It was like, 'Stayin' alive, stayin' alive -- take a right here, take a left here -- Stayin' alive, stayin' alive -- take this path down here -- Stayin' alive, stayin' alive,' " Bader remembers.

For 15 minutes Bader, who had never taken a CPR class, pumped her husband's chest until the ambulance arrived and the EMTs delivered a shock to his heart with a defibrillator. Christopher Bader survived, but 95 percent of people who go into cardiac arrest die before they get to the hospital.



Thoughts?

[fable]

You know, it's a good thing he didn't regain consciousness while his wife was singing "Stayin' Alive." That alone would have driven any sane person over the edge.

[dragon wench]

You know, it's a good thing he didn't regain consciousness while his wife was singing "Stayin' Alive." That alone would have driven any sane person over the edge.

My response exactly as I was reading the story... :laugh:

[Loki[D.d.G]]

I also consider it fortunate that the EMT didn't question the caller's sanity or dismiss it as a poorly conceived prank call.