Live data from Hacker News

British woman revived after six-hour cardiac arrest

bbc.com

91–100 of 174 posts

Re: British woman revived after six-hour cardiac arrest

#91
post #89

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…

Irrational yes. Broken, no just optimized differently than other systems. The system is optimized to serve those who can afford it and those who are very poor and get it for free, but not those in between. It is optimized to generate profit, but also new treatments. Rich people from all over the world come here for surgery and treatment. The pricing system is intentionally designed to be opaque so that everyone excep…

[deleted]

Re: British woman revived after six-hour cardiac arrest

#92
post #89

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…

Irrational yes. Broken, no just optimized differently than other systems. The system is optimized to serve those who can afford it and those who are very poor and get it for free, but not those in between. It is optimized to generate profit, but also new treatments. Rich people from all over the world come here for surgery and treatment. The pricing system is intentionally designed to be opaque so that everyone excep…

> Furthermore, it is one of the only growing industries that provides many opportunities for women. Not many women want to move to Montana to frack shale oil.

Is this supposed to be a good argument to drive desperate people into bankruptcy?

Re: British woman revived after six-hour cardiac arrest

#93
post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It mostly suggests that one person got very lucky and that there are likely important details that made the difference between 'dead' and 'mostly dead'. Hypothermia due to a low environmental temperature has already been flagged as the way to come out of various otherwise fatal situations in more or less one piece. Besides that, even if no pulse can be detected that doesn't mean there isn't a pulse, and that can make…

Sure, but given enough effort perhaps we can figure out what the important details are that make the difference between 'dead' and 'mostly dead'?

There are no secrets here:

https://www.bbc.com/news/health-11389464

Just the fantasy of the life-extenders that if they figure out this one weird thing they will live forever. The body can be temporarily suspended, depending on the complexity of the creature this can be a very long time, frogs for instance can do it for weeks or even months.

https://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-alaskan...

The big differentiator is whether or not the water in the cells has crystallized or not, if it does it will rupture the cells and then it is game over no matter what. Other than that it is mostly a roulette game with very high stakes.

There are lots of papers on frost damage to cells, too many to list here but easily searchable.

Re: British woman revived after six-hour cardiac arrest

#94

It’s amazing how this phenomenon has been adapted into medical technology. When my son was born he wasn’t breathing properly and his blood oxygen levels dropped to critical levels. He was rushed to hospital and the first thing they did was cool him to 34c to reduce the risk of brain damage. He made a full recovery. I dread to think what would have happened without the cooling.

Same thing happened when my son was born and he had complications resulting in loss of blood to the brain for a significant amount of time. We were told to expect mild to moderate brain damage while we just had to sit and wait as they basically did nothing but keep him cooled for about three days. It's been three years now and he very smart and extremely athletic. The doctors said the cooling is what the difference. His complications happened at the hospital so he was able to be cooled immediately.

Re: British woman revived after six-hour cardiac arrest

#95
post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Indeed. Survival rates: - Cardiac arrest (outside hospitals): - Cardiac arrest (inside hospitals): - Heart attack (myocardial infarction): > 90%

Yup, makes sense because although the phrase "heart attack" generally has a worse connotation, the immediate reality of a full cardiac arrest is actually much worse - the entire heart stops instead of only part of it.

"In summary, there is a difference between a heart attack and a cardiac arrest. A heart attack occurs when the blood supply to part of the heart stops and thus causes a section of the heart muscle to begin to die; whereas a cardiac arrest occurs when the heart stops beating as a whole.Jun 25, 2019" [1] https://www.news-medical.net/health/Heart-attack-and-cardiac...

Re: British woman revived after six-hour cardiac arrest

#97
post #96

As someone who was once an NREMT-B in the US, we were taught that someone isn't dead, until they're cold dead. I haven't read the article yet, but I assume they kept her warm.

I lost the ability to edit my comments. I meant to say warm dead...not cold.

Re: British woman revived after six-hour cardiac arrest

#98
post #96

As someone who was once an NREMT-B in the US, we were taught that someone isn't dead, until they're cold dead. I haven't read the article yet, but I assume they kept her warm.

Exactly the opposite. You want to keep someone cold until their brain has had a chance to recover.

Re: British woman revived after six-hour cardiac arrest

#99
post #96

As someone who was once an NREMT-B in the US, we were taught that someone isn't dead, until they're cold dead. I haven't read the article yet, but I assume they kept her warm.

Not sure about that. People whose heart and lungs have stopped may survive longer if they're cold. At least that's what I heard relating to a case of a boy who was revived after spending a long time under the ice of a frozen lake/river.

Re: British woman revived after six-hour cardiac arrest

#100

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…

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.

$100 markup my arse.

Post reply on HN