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British woman revived after six-hour cardiac arrest

bbc.com

121–130 of 174 posts

Re: British woman revived after six-hour cardiac arrest

#121
post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> humans can boot from disk Now I want to read a sci-fi book with this sentence in it.

Alter Carbon: A key concept in Netflix's cyberpunk series Altered Carbon is the 'stack', an advanced hard drive installed on the brainstem on which a person can save a copy of their consciousness. The main effect of stack technology is a form of immortality, because a stack can be installed into another body if the original body dies. But there’s another a major implication only hinted at during the first season of A…

I would also be curious about the impact of the divergence of branches. Like in git forks or branches diverging

This would be the perfect research testbed for human psychology and intelligence. Do something, compare with exact but unmodified state.

Re: British woman revived after six-hour cardiac arrest

#122
post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No the reflex does not depend on temperature. The immersion in water is what initiates the reflex. Though it is true that cooler water prolongs the reflex. I spearfish in the Caribbean so average water temps are 70s-80s. It is the struggling and adrenaline that causes rapid loss of consciousnesses in water, as it rapidly depletes oxygen and works against the reflex. If one calms themselves and uses deliberate movemen…

Spear fishing sounds really nice. Too bad I am VERY afraid of sharks. Yes I saw Jaws when I was a kid.

When you have been in the water long enough sharks are a natural encounter. After a while they just become part of the landscape to you. They are attracted to the struggling fish and will try to bully you for your fish but rarely are you their main attraction. When you realize that they are a lot like dogs is when your attitude starts to change with about them being around. You realize if you stand your ground give them a nudge with your spear, they generally loose interest really quickly. They avoid fighting for or with their meal. They always say it is the shark that you don't see that will get you and it is true. As long as your keep them in your sight, and confront them they will loose interest. I am no more afraid of a shark nowadays than I am a dog. You give them respect but you stand firm. I have only ever been in one really hairy situation and that was with a persistent 14 ft Tiger shark. Long story short after several nudges with my spear, and it just circling back around, I used what we call a blowfish defense on it, where you ball up and as they are coming in you stretch out your body, arms and legs quickly. That was enough to startle it and cause it to loose interest. That was the first and last time I have ever had to blowfish, All of the rest where easily persuaded that I was going to fight for my meal.

Re: British woman revived after six-hour cardiac arrest

#123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wasn't a joke. I went to the US on business - our corporate insurance means there's a $1000 excess that we pay up front. Went to a hospital for a minor issue. At no point was there any price list shown, at the end I was asked for $390 before been given my prescription. That was the end of it I thought, sickeningly high charge for 2 minutes with a doctor, a 10p tablet, and hours of waiting around. I asked for an itemi…

In the US, patients should go to urgent care for minor health issues that are unlikely to require a fully outfitted trauma and surgical unit. Conveniently, they’re also much easier to get to in urban areas. Urgent care would have had something closer to a $100 markup than $2,000, because you’re only paying for a few nurses and doctors to be on call, not for having used the resources that are meant for trauma and acut…

In theory urgent care would be useful, but for anything non-obvious you have to go to ER. Abdominal pain? ER. Head injury? Dislocation requiring pain management? ER.

Urgent care can get you antibiotics and test for strep, and I think x-ray and set simple fractures, and stitches of course. What else is within their scope, I find it fairly limited.

Re: British woman revived after six-hour cardiac arrest

#124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wasn't a joke. I went to the US on business - our corporate insurance means there's a $1000 excess that we pay up front. Went to a hospital for a minor issue. At no point was there any price list shown, at the end I was asked for $390 before been given my prescription. That was the end of it I thought, sickeningly high charge for 2 minutes with a doctor, a 10p tablet, and hours of waiting around. I asked for an itemi…

In the US, patients should go to urgent care for minor health issues that are unlikely to require a fully outfitted trauma and surgical unit. Conveniently, they’re also much easier to get to in urban areas. Urgent care would have had something closer to a $100 markup than $2,000, because you’re only paying for a few nurses and doctors to be on call, not for having used the resources that are meant for trauma and acut…

Outside of large cities, urgent care facilities operate on the standard 9-5 and are very selective when it comes to which insurance plans they take.

It's entirely possible that you're insured, but no facility within an hour's drive will take your plan, and if your kid becomes ill outside of business hours, tough luck. For liability reasons, they'll refer you to the ER anyway if you have symptoms beyond a sore throat.

The last time I had to go to an urgent care clinic in a state where no one took my insurance plan, I had to pay $700 out of pocket to talk with a doctor for 10 minutes and get prescribed a z-pack. I then paid $90 for 6 pills at the pharmacy.

Re: British woman revived after six-hour cardiac arrest

#125
post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the US, patients should go to urgent care for minor health issues that are unlikely to require a fully outfitted trauma and surgical unit. Conveniently, they’re also much easier to get to in urban areas. Urgent care would have had something closer to a $100 markup than $2,000, because you’re only paying for a few nurses and doctors to be on call, not for having used the resources that are meant for trauma and acut…

You mean how the Bay Area, which is fairly urban, has precious few urgent care clinics open until 10 pm and, I believe, literally none open after 10pm? I went to one of these urgent care clinics once and got charged $650 for about 5 minutes of doctor time and a single DermaBond stick. The latter costs something like $20. Oh yeah, I asked how much I would be charged before the doc saw me and they refused to answer. $1…

You went to the doctor for a bandaid? Seriously? Could you not apply said bandaid yourself? Why would you waste a doctors time and your money for that?

Re: British woman revived after six-hour cardiac arrest

#126
post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a great joke but I feel I should point out that cardiac arrests != heart attacks

Wasn't a joke. I went to the US on business - our corporate insurance means there's a $1000 excess that we pay up front. Went to a hospital for a minor issue. At no point was there any price list shown, at the end I was asked for $390 before been given my prescription. That was the end of it I thought, sickeningly high charge for 2 minutes with a doctor, a 10p tablet, and hours of waiting around. I asked for an itemi…

One of the reasons why I don't go to the USA anymore. Past 50 the chances of something medical popping up are higher than they were in the past and I just can't afford worrying about this. The total list of why I don't go there anymore is much longer but this is definitely one item on the list. This sucks because I have more friends in the USA than I do anywhere else and I miss them.

Re: British woman revived after six-hour cardiac arrest

#127
post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a great joke but I feel I should point out that cardiac arrests != heart attacks

Wasn't a joke. I went to the US on business - our corporate insurance means there's a $1000 excess that we pay up front. Went to a hospital for a minor issue. At no point was there any price list shown, at the end I was asked for $390 before been given my prescription. That was the end of it I thought, sickeningly high charge for 2 minutes with a doctor, a 10p tablet, and hours of waiting around. I asked for an itemi…

I get the point, but that's a joke. She didn't wake up and see a bill. You don't get the full blown, by the way, the anesthesiologist actually charges $20k+ for less than an hour of care bill, until a few weeks later.

Re: British woman revived after six-hour cardiac arrest

#128
post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You mean how the Bay Area, which is fairly urban, has precious few urgent care clinics open until 10 pm and, I believe, literally none open after 10pm? I went to one of these urgent care clinics once and got charged $650 for about 5 minutes of doctor time and a single DermaBond stick. The latter costs something like $20. Oh yeah, I asked how much I would be charged before the doc saw me and they refused to answer. $1…

You went to the doctor for a bandaid? Seriously? Could you not apply said bandaid yourself? Why would you waste a doctors time and your money for that?

I don't like the tone of your comment at all. It's very well possible for a person to end up in the hospital where the right treatment is to 'stick a bandaid on' on one end of the treatment spectrum and a much more invasive or complex procedure on the other when going in with roughly the same symptoms.

For instance, if you work a lot with tools and dirt then there is a fine line between blood poisoning and a mere scratch, they will both start out the same but you won't be able to tell what's in your bloodstream until it is too late if you're going by symptoms alone. By the time the choice is amputation above or below the knee or you've gone into septic shock you've lost the window where you might have been ok. More people die from this stuff than from heart attacks or strokes.

So in some cases, when the exact contaminant is not known it can be a good decision to go to the hospital to have something looked at, and it shouldn't cost an arm and a leg (pun unfortunately not intended) to do so.

Nobody goes to the hospital for fun except for a very few individuals that have something wrong with their heads rather than with their bodies, and that's before we get into things like people with compromised immune systems.

Re: British woman revived after six-hour cardiac arrest

#129

Good job it wasn't in america, she'd have woken up, seen the bill, and had another heart attack!

"Eschew flamebait. Don't introduce flamewar topics unless you have something genuinely new to say. Avoid unrelated controversies and generic tangents."

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

HN has had countless generic arguments about the US health care system. Turning a thread about something else into one of those is a step in the wrong direction. The major controversies eat up all the smaller topics, but the smaller topics are what actually gratify curiosity.

Re: British woman revived after six-hour cardiac arrest

#130
post #64

Some notes: - The headline is clickbait/false really. The six-hour cardiac arrest is pretty much made up/guessed. In fact, they don't know how long she was in cardiac arrest. The article actually goes on to state "how long her heart stopped for is not clear", so it's a bit odd to say she had a six-hour cardiac arrest. - The six hours timeframe actually refers to the fact that a defibrillator was used 6 hours after th…

Defibrillation doesn’t jump start a stopped heart, either - article is light on accuracy...
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