wick@ihuxw.UUCP (01/25/84)
[] Last weekend in Chicago a 4 yr. old boy fell through the ice of Lake Michigan, and was trapped there for 20 minutes. When he was pulled out, he was "dead," but the cold water slowed his metabolism down to the point he was almost in a state of suspended animation. The boy seems to be on the way to recovery, whether there is any permanent damage is not known yet, but the treatment of the doctors has me puzzled. When the boy was brought to the hospital, he was given barbiturates and put into a coma. The barbiturate dosage is now being reduced, so he should start coming out of the coma on Thursday. My question: What are the benefits of a barbiturate induced coma? This is a little counter intuitive. -- John Wickberg ..!ihnp4!ihuxw!wick
shacklet@ittral.UUCP (Cliff Shackleton) (01/25/84)
I saw on one of these "good morning" shows this morning an interview with the doctor that treated the little boy. He said that the particular drug and the coma state produced the side effect of increasing oxygen in the brain and that the coma state itself was not bad but that it was the body's way of reorganizing itself after a severe trauma. By the way the little boy is now out of the coma and is responding to verbal stimulus, and is able to move his arms and legs etc. It's amazing when you consider he was under water about twenty minutes.
andrew@inmet.UUCP (01/26/84)
#R:ihuxw:-67500:inmet:11200004:000:195 inmet!andrew Jan 24 11:22:00 1984 According to an AP article in today's (1/24) Boston Globe, the coma was induced "to keep pressure in his skull from damaging his brain". He woke up yesterday, but is still in serious condition.
walsh@ihuxi.UUCP (B. Walsh) (01/30/84)
What burns me about the treatment of the boy (Johnny) is that the emergency medical techs (EMTs) worked on him themselves for over an HOUR, when a hospital was only three minutes away! These EMTs get too carried away trying to "stabilize" patients, when they should be concerned with transporting said patients to the hospital. The boy was unconscious when pulled out of the water (really, he was clinically dead) and they sat there for an hour in the ambulance. Unbelievable. Leave medicine to medics! B. Walsh
ded@aplvax.UUCP (01/31/84)
B. Walsh has stated that the underwater boy was treated for an hour in the ambulance before being transported to the hospital, and wonders why he wasn't transported immediately. Well, I wonder too. But, one of the doctors involved said that the boy was saved due to sophisticated on-site treatment AND sophisticated hospital treatment. I wonder if the on-site ambulance treatment was absolutely necessary to effect the final outcome. -- Don Davis JHU/APL ...decvax!harpo!seismo!umcp-cs!aplvax!ded ...rlgvax!cvl!umcp-cs!aplvax!ded