www.theage.com.au/national/man-given-up-for-dead-found-alive-20120401-1w6eq.html

Ambulance Victoria is expected to explain how a man declared dead by paramedics in a car crash was found alive 30 minutes later by an SES volunteer tasked with recovering his body.
The 30-year-old man from Hawthorn was trapped in the wreckage after the Porsche he was driving ran into the back of another vehicle and flipped on the Western Highway near Bacchus Marsh Road about 2am on Sunday.
Three men aged in their 20s from Melton who were travelling in the other vehicle, a Nissan 4WD, were not injured, according to police.
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Paramedics who attended the scene at 2.10am did not find any signs of life when they located the Porsche driver, who had suffered head injuries when his vehicle crashed into a rail on the side of the road and overturned following the collision with the 4WD.
But 30 minutes later, an SES volunteer who was cutting the man from the wrecked car found a pulse and he was taken to Royal Melbourne Hospital in a critical condition.
Ambulance Victoria has said it will review how patients' vital signs are checked and will hold a press conference later today.
"On arrival of paramedics the man was extensively trapped in the wreckage of the car with life-threatening head injuries," Ambulance Victoria's regional manager Simon Thomson said in a statement yesterday.
"Ambulance Victoria is reviewing the circumstances of this case."
Meanwhile, Victoria Police has appealed for anyone who witnessed the crash to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or visit www.crimestoppers.com.au


Read more: www.theage.com.au/national/man-given-up-for-dead-found-alive-20120401-1w6eq.html#ixzz1qpOo60PF




I don't have a problem with what the paramedics did. The probably didn't find a pulse, the guy's body was probably in deep shock, and the guys body was probably taking a few minutes to decide if life is worth living...

I saw a good documentary once on being cold and dead... basically, your body can quite easily go into hibernation mode at survive a certain amount of time with a core temperature in the realms of 24-32 degrees. Warm them back up again, and there's a chance they can come back to life. Being cold is still more or less a form of shock...

Interesting anyway.

Tough call...on-scene the ambos are the calmest & most professional of all rescuers, and I'm sure this does happen on occasion. Not sure why it's front-page news other than to lift the profile of the SES. I'd never criticise the work the ambos do, and I'm sure that there was good reason why this happened (probably due to gov't funding cut-backs), with multiple casualties in a high-speed accident they have to prioritise.

No pulse (or very faint one that is missed) in a high-speed accident in most cases means that the internal organs have suffered so much trauma due to the g-forces that they have been damaged past the point of recovery. The ambos would've checked him very carefully, then made the decision to leave him to concentrate their skills on the other passengers that have a chance.

It's great that the SES member did a thorough job & rather than the public criticise the ambos, they should applaud the system that allows upskilling volunteers to a level where their 1st aid skills can save lives. (from an active SES member...so no prejudice shown!)

It's quite possible that the Ambo's got it right, at that particular time... No pulse for a few minutes, while the ambos are checking... Then pulse starts up after the ambos walk away... I would have thought that is possible. Rare, and unlikely, but not necessarily impossible...

Another morale - give your gold coins and more to the SES for their efforts. It said an SES volunteer was there cutting the car up, to retrieve the guy... I would think the government should be giving special tax credits to these guys. At the end of each financial year, the SES boys and girls should receive a special credit note. Say $25-50/hr tax free, for some of these harder tasks. If you did 100hrs in a year x say $25 = $2,500 as a personal tax deduction.

Simondo said...

Another morale - give your gold coins and more to the SES for their efforts. It said an SES volunteer was there cutting the car up, to retrieve the guy... I would think the government should be giving special tax credits to these guys. At the end of each financial year, the SES boys and girls should receive a special credit note. Say $25-50/hr tax free, for some of these harder tasks. If you did 100hrs in a year x say $25 = $2,500 as a personal tax deduction.

Vote 1 Simondo for PM!

Nice sentiment, but volunteers don't do it for money, and although many would welcome the extra dollars...it would lead to 'undesirables' joining for the money. I'd rather see the dollars go toward training & equipment for emergency services.

Any donation to your local SES unit (and other emergency units) are always welcome & 100% goes in to the unit's account, carefully allocated/distributed to equipment/training resources or maintenance for that particular unit thorough either immediate need (decision made by controller) or in most cases the entire unit will vote on any distribution of funds. There is always a large amount of money needed to be raised for individual unit funding for equipment purchases & vehicles (yep, we have to buy our own, or at least match the gov't funding for trucks/4wds & some equipment). Additionally, each individual unit has to keep their accounting up-to-date & get audited regularly, so there's no chance that donations will go astray.

As with most SES units, we also raise funds for other charities through fundraising & events, but donations to an SES unit go directly to that SES unit.

red said...

Without knowing the full story... I'm sticking up for my colleagues. As a fellow victorian paramedic I can only hope that something positive comes out of this.. Without making excuses, Vic ambo's are getting flogged to the point of collapse. Allegedly this crew had worked 10 hours straight without a break..

Have a look at this site and have a good look at what were dealing with...

www.fair-go.com/blog/

Good on you Red! I wholly agree with you.

[edit] All our 1st aid trainers are current paramedics and the knowledge they have (especially of matching the symptom to the injury) is invaluable! The reason this driver is alive is in fact thanks to the knowledge the SES member would've received through training from the paramedics that are copping the flogging in this case.

As it stands we document the amount of time volunteering & training, the hours directly affect the funding our unit gets, but I'd be happy to direct some of my tax dollars to volunteer organisations...not sure if the ATO or Fed gov't would be happy with it.