yeah i heard the same, but also heard he may have been face down in the water for a long period of time. Asked around and no one really knows much on the incident which is surprising. Hope his ok

Not a good situation. Hope the bloke is okay.

Sad to hear. Good work for the person who pulled him out of the water and started CPR.

The actual chances of restarting someone heart with CPR is very very low, but what you are doing is keeping blood going around the body and keeping the person from dying straight away.

It wasn't a KR instructor, I think he came later to help pack up the man's kite and stuff. It was this American dude who ended up having to dump his kite in a hurry and ended up spending the next hour untangling his birds nest of lines after the paramedics had left.

So not only did he (maybe) save someone's life, he also lost an hour of awesome kiting.

Man deserves a beer next time I see him.

****.. RIP.

ewan kite said...
saved this mans life

Unfortunately not if you read one of the previous posts. Despite best attempts from the individuals concerned it seems he didn't make it in the end, although their efforts probably improved his chances substantially. :( Condolences to the family

Big eeeZeee said...

hearing stories like this makes me want to brush up on my first aid course I did eons ago. They're always updating CPR method aren't they? Something everyone should look into i guess.

Rest in peace dude

Without going into too many details, the new consensus is not to bother with mouth to mouth or any artificial breathing, just apply compressions nice and hard until you get tired, then to get someone else to take over. The benefit of mouth to mouth is debatable and if anything it just turns bystanders off the prospect of helping.

Just make sure they don't have a pulse first! If they punch you in the face when you're giving CPR they probably don't need it.

chino said...

Big eeeZeee said...

hearing stories like this makes me want to brush up on my first aid course I did eons ago. They're always updating CPR method aren't they? Something everyone should look into i guess.

Rest in peace dude

Without going into too many details, the new consensus is not to bother with mouth to mouth or any artificial breathing, just apply compressions nice and hard until you get tired, then to get someone else to take over. The benefit of mouth to mouth is debatable and if anything it just turns bystanders off the prospect of helping.

Just make sure they don't have a pulse first! If they punch you in the face when you're giving CPR they probably don't need it.

I did my SFA in august, and their still teaching you to give breaths.
The current teaching is 30 compressions in 30 seconds, then two breaths.

Posted today by Matt Jones to KBV and others:

On Friday the 19th of November 2010, Tristan Morrison, 28years of age suffered a massive heart attack while kiteboarding at West Beach St kilda which was caused by a surge of adrenalin. Unfortunately after being rushed to the Alfred Hospital by Ambulance Tristan passed away on Saturday night.

Tristan had been kiting for 2 years and he was an intermediate kiteboarder.

Tristan was from Queensland and his family came to Melbourne and they attended West Beach on Sunday to meet the local kiters and see where the incident took place. I passed on the kiting communities sympathies and suggested that a collection be organised and the family would like any donations to be forwarded to the Ambulance service.

Lance from Kite Republic met with the family after I had spoken with them and he spoke with the family at greater length and supplied them with the details that were known.

It is a tragic occurrence and it was a health issue that could not have been avoided. This situation hopefully raises health-related awareness to all kiteboarders and the community.

The Melbourne Kiteboarding Academy ( Matt Jones ) can be contacted for any further details if required on 0431 74522.

We wish the family all the best in this trying time.

Regards,

Matt Jones
Melbourne Kiteboarding Academy.

Saffer said...

Albos said...

when performing CPR if there are two people you can tag team with breathes and compression.

Compression should be done on the sternum and its quite normal to break ribs even when you do it correctly.

It also may interest people to know that you can keep a person alive for a couple of hours even if they don't have a pulse so its not like you see on the movies where people try for 5 minutes and then throw a sheet over the person and give up. The blood circulation created by the chest compression is normally enough to prevent brain damage. If no one is around to tell you otherwise, just continue chest compressions until a paramedic tells you to stop, even if its an hour or two.

Alot of the time the parametic will actually ask you to continue unless you are unable to keep going, while the get all their equipment out and monitor the person.

If you see someone colapse in the street, you do not have to help them even if you have first aid training. But if u do start you are then liable to contiune until either help arrives or you physically cannot help anymore

New CPR guidelines

www.google.com.au/search?aq=f&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=new+cpr&gws_rd=ssl

Easier to do.
More effective because you do the important stuff first.
Does not require mouth to mouth (especially difficult if it's stranger and/or a near dead person).

salt said...

It is very dangerous to be misinformed and publicly post: "don't bother with breathing", "can keep you alive a couple of hours".

I did a First aid course this week.

You can keep someone alive indefinitely with CPR. Someone had CPR performed on them for 12hrs. You Do Not Stop CPR until a medic/nurse/Dr arrives. Breaths and compressions will keep someone alive.
They will not be revived without a defibrillator. What you see in movies is false. Someone will not "wake up" with CPR alone.

30 compressions (2 compressions per second), 2 (1 second) breaths... continue

Artificial breaths are being considered taken out of the standard CPR protocol for a number of reasons, the most important being that people are reluctant to help if it involves mouth to mouth. The most important thing is to keep circulation going. If you want to apply breaths, thats fine and will certainly do no harm to whoever you are helping. But applying compressions only is easier for many people and encourages them to help where they normally wouldn't. You're applying negative pressure to the lungs when you compress, which results in forced air entry into the lungs. Not to mention the air getting in is 21% oxygen (approx 120 mm Hg) vs mouth breaths, which may create higher inspiratory pressures, but are closer to 10% oxygen (70mm hg or less). This applies less if there is mechanical obstruction to the lungs (water, inhaled sputum, etc) in which case applying positive pressure is still indicated.

Applying compressions is hard. Proper compressions that create proper circulation need to be done at around 100 beats per minute (1.5 compressions a second). The average fit and healthy person can usually do it effectively for about 5 minutes before having to get someone else to come in and switch.

So yes, I stand by my original comment. If you want to help and are forced to do one thing and nothing else, apply compressions.

Down times over 10 minutes or more usually result in death. The biggest predictive factor of someone surviving an out-of-hospital arrest is the time it takes them to get to a defibrillator.