How a Hardware Designer Was Saved By His Own Creation 60
szczys writes Would you do a better job designing hardware if your life depended on it? Chris Nefcy is in that exact position. Years ago he developed an Automatic External Defibrilator for First Medic. The device allows non-doctors to restart a human heart in the field. When Chris had a heart attack his ticker was restarted with shocks from his own hardware. His story isn't just heartwarming, he also covers the path that led him into developing the AED and the bumpy road encountered getting the hardware to market.
soooo (Score:5, Funny)
does that mean nobody can accuse him of being unable to design something to save his own life?
Not automatic (Score:1)
He may have designed the machine, but it still needed some trained personnel to zap him. I suppose it's a win that less training was required than with the previous defibrilators, but it's not like he build one that was attached to him like an external pacemaker.
Re:Not automatic (Score:4, Informative)
Now the thing about AED's that interests me is who is going to put the pads on you and activate the machine? The whole bystander effect and all.
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Even if the training consisted of "That box over there, you should use it on someone when they're having a heart attack" it would be too much for the average untrained person. Not because it would be too complicated, but because people aren't good at acting when in a panic.
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Well if it was truly automatic, it could be a robot that detects when someone is having a heart attack and goes and zaps him. Such a thing would be technically possible now, although the manufacturer would likely get sued into oblivion.
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The nice thing about AED is that you only need to learn two things about using it: 1. how/where to place the pads, 2. follow what it tells you and make sure everyone is clear of the person getting the shock.
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The nice thing about AED is that you only need to learn two things about using it: 1. how/where to place the pads, 2. follow what it tells you and make sure everyone is clear of the person getting the shock.
That's three things.
You should come in again.
Re:Not automatic (Score:4, Funny)
*Nobody* expects to have a heart attack and need to use a defibrillator!
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Those who aren't clear will make damned sure they are for the next one.
Re:Not automatic (Score:5, Informative)
There is zero training required to operate an AED.
If you can't figure out how to open the zip and push the big button marked ON, then I'm amazed you figured out that the person needed first aid at all.
Re:Not automatic (Score:5, Informative)
Trained personnel? If they were capable of reading the instructions that were in the case, or listening to the directions spoken by the machine, that covers about 95% of what training is really required for a normal adult.
I am a certified First Aid/CPR/AED instructor for the American Red Cross. The level of training required to use an AED if you are calm, cool, and collected (and no cross-chest nipple piercings are involved) is less than is necessary to assemble a table from Ikea. That said, when you need to use one, calm, cool, and collected are frequently out the window, which is why training is recommended. Almost anything you can do wrong, the machine will let you know that something is wrong so you can correct it. Many kits even come with a razor to deal with the overly hirsute. Oh, and I was involved with building an internal pacemaker capable of phoning home to the doctor (though you had to hold the phone up to your chest, it couldn't reach out and grab it) back when they still required DSPs.
The AEDs automatically analyze heart rhythms (or lack thereof) and notify the operator to push a button if a shock is required. They will provide a shock for two different rhythms- V-fib (Ventricular Fibrillation) and V-Tach (Ventricular Tachychardia). They will not shock for asystole (no electrical heart signals detected at all, and must be avoided so you don't try using an AED to jump start your car or do some tiny welding) and PEA (pulseless electrical activity- the wiring is working, but the engine is dead).
Long story longer: Heart Attacks are NONE of these cases. AEDs WILL NOT PRODUCE A SHOCK for a heart attack, which is simply the blockage of blood to the heart, usually caused by a clot breaking loose. Heart attacks can result in cardiac arrest, which does result in one of the four cases above, but an AED will do nothing for a simple heart attack. TFA correctly describes that he had a cardiac arrest (sudden dropping to the ground), but incorrectly says he flat-lined (asystole, AED wouldn't have helped in that case) and that he had a heart attack (if he only had a heart attack, he could have walked off the court and hopefully gotten a quick ride to a hospital).
Any more info needed? I strongly encourage you and everyone to take a First Aid/CPR/AED class from whatever qualified source is available (Red Cross, Heart Association, etc). The chance that you will ever need to perform CPR is pretty low, but I have had to deal with a choking in a restaurant, a compound fracture at a swimming pool, a petite mal siezure on a subway, and other situations that are far more likely.
Comment removed (Score:4, Insightful)
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Should you crack a person's rib during CPR you were probably doing it wrong
No, you're probably doing it right. Most people don't push hard enough.
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Demonlapin is correct: if you are doing proper chest compressions, there is a high likelihood you will crack the ribs of most adults over 40 (almost guaranteed if a woman over 60), and a reasonable likelihood of doing it to younger adults.
But, if you got out of the training that you should only do CPR if the AED doesn't work, you misheard the instructor. You shouldn't attempt to use an AED until after the first round of CPR has been performed (though not taught by the ARC at this point to lay rescuers, som
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He may have designed the machine, but it still needed some trained personnel to zap him.
Obviously, you don't watch James Bond movies.
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By less you mean the ability to follow ikea level pictures only instructions. Hell the new gen include cellphones that call 911 the instant you pull it off the wall without the override "key" so a dispatcher can walk you though it if needed, the cell phones lets them know where to send help to.
wrong (Score:3)
Re:wrong (Score:4, Insightful)
For the 1000000000th time, defibrillators don't start your heart, they stop it. That's how they all work. Look it up.
Well since it's nerds: it's like pressing the reset button (not the power on button).
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AED (provided someone is following the instructions it gives), does both.
Re:wrong (Score:4, Insightful)
The AED can't restart the heart from true "flat line" (asystole). You have to force the heart into some kind of activity using manual CPR, and ideally a suitable drug, to give the AED something to bite on.
However, tachycardia can appear pulseless even though the heart is still beating (dysrhythmically), and the AED alone can shock-stop that dysrythmia and allow the heart to restore its own timing. That's where the advice to use the AED "even if their heart has stopped" comes from; their heart hasn't actually stopped.
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Rescue breathing and chest compressions are part of the instructions given by AED, atleast the one I trained on did. It takes of timing for breathing and beeps for the compression rhythm.
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Non-rythmic "pulsaion" of the heart is ventricular fibrilation, not tachycardia. Tachycardia is an abnormally fast, shallow rythm. It can LEAD to fibrilation, because it can try to contract faster than it is physically able to, leading to spasm-- but it itself is just very fast rythm.
The CPR/AED instructor is correct, however. An AED stops the heart's electrical activity after it goes crazy and stops beating in a useful rythm, but is still trying to beat. This forces the heart to pause, then start beating
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Except TFS doesn't say stop, it says "restart"
AED crowd-funding / foundation anyone? (Score:1)
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Allover internet we see a high need for AEDs, and schools and other public places in big need for AEDs, due to very high price.
What would ./ readers suggest?
Tort reform to reduce insurance liability for the manufacturers so that you aren't paying for "accidentally kill someone / fail to save someone ho was beyond saving" insurance in the price of the device for litigious people grieving for their dead loved one a whole lot more than their dead loved one's life is actually worth, compared to the number of people who could be saved were the devices cheaper.
Also, the insurance companies get paid 3 times on each device:
(1) The manufacturer's liability insurance
(2)
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Mandatory Pratchett quote. (Score:4, Funny)
Suppose this article inverts the story, but still...
It's a pervasive and beguiling myth that the people who design instruments of death end up being killed by them. There is almost no foundation in fact. Colonel Shrapnel wasn't blown up, M. Guillotin died with his head on, Colonel Gatling wasn't shot. If it hadn't been for the murder of cosh and blackjack maker Sir William Blunt-Instrument in an alleyway, the rumour would never have got started.
Re:Mandatory Pratchett quote. (Score:5, Informative)
Since I've already been a pedantic wanker in this thread, I might as well dance...
"Colonel Shrapnel wasn't blown up, M. Guillotin died with his head on, Colonel Gatling wasn't shot. If it hadn't been for the murder of cosh and blackjack maker Sir William Blunt-Instrument in an alleyway, the rumour would never have got started." - Feet of Clay
Henry Shrapnel died a lieutenant-general, and was posthumously promoted to major-general. Convention is to use that final rank, however even if you are trying to be contemporaneous, he invented the eponymous shell while a lieutenant, so colonel is still wrong.
Richard Gatling was a medical doctor before becoming an engineer/inventor. He ran his engineering company during the US Civil War, and AFAIK he never served.
Likewise, Joseph-Ignace Guillotin was a French physician. Hence Docteur Guillotin, Monsieur Docteur, even Monsieur Medicins, but never Monsieur Guillotin. (Wikipoo says that Guillotin didn't actually invent the guillotine and opposed the death penalty, his family ended up changing their family name due to the shame. Also that a guy called Guillotin was guillotined.)
And finally, Willem Blunt was never knighted, the most he ever got was an OM. "Blunt Instrument" was also a nickname, not his actual surname. So, Willem "Blunt Instrument" Blunt OM. And he died after drunkenly falling off a horse, not being bashed in an alley.
Sir Terence Pratchett, OTOH, has an OBE and is fully entitled.
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*tips hat*
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Thanks. But "+5 informative"? A bunch of wiki-scraping to set up that penultimate line. What is wrong with people? Sheesh. What does a troll have to do to earn some disrespect around here?
Isambard Kingdom Brunel did it 170 years ago. (Score:2)
In the 1840s he accidentally inhaled a coin that got lodged in his windpipe. None of the existing forceps could remove it. He designed a special forceps himself which failed. Then designed a contraption which too failed to remove it. Then he and his father designed another contraption where he was strapped upside down and mallets stuck h
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If it took a couple months to extract the coin, was it really his life that was in danger, or just his comfort?
Eating your own dogfood? (Score:2)
It was bad enough when the VoIP startup I worked for tried to make us use our own softswitch for phone calls in the office...
Good for him! (Score:2)
People who invent things that save lives...SHOULD be rewarded. It's nice to see somebody get the benefit of their own contribution to humanity. Kudos!