Îlîi ^Jortlanò (Obstruer
July 8. 2009
Page A5
H ealth matters
School Nursing
Law Approved
Hospital known for 'Raising the Dead’
Lucky ones
get hearts
resuscitated
(AP) - When Michael Jackson
went into cardiac arrest, rescuers
took him to a place known for
bringing the dead back to life. A
world-renowned surgeon at the
UCLA Medical Center has pio
neered a way to revive people that
most doctors would have long
written off, including a woman
whose heart had stopped for 2 1/
2 hours.
Tested on a few dozen cardiac
arrest patients, 80 percent sur
vived. Usually, more than 80 per
cent perish.
"They took people who were
basically dead, not all that differ
ent than Michael Jackson, and
saved most o f them," said Dr.
Lance Becker, an emergency medi
cine specialist at the University
of Pennsylvania and an American
Heart Association spokesman.
Could Jackson, too, have been
saved?
It's impossible to know. Doctors
at the hospital worked on him for
an hour. T he U C LA e x p e rt,
cardiothoracic surgeon Dr. Gerald
Buckberg, said he was not per
sonally involved in Jackson's
treatment, and that too little is
known about what preceded it.
"We have no idea when he died
versus w hen he w as found,"
Buckberg said.
However, the results in other
patients show that "the window
Dr. Gerald Buckberg, a
cardiac surgeon at the
UCLA Medical Center in
Los Angeles sits next to
a computer that illus
trates how a heart-lung
machine is used in an
emergency room setting
to keep blood and oxygen
moving through the body.
(AP photo)
is wide open to new thinking"
about how long people can be
successfully resuscitated after
th e ir h e a rts q u it b e a tin g ,
Buckberg said. "We can salvage
them way beyond the current time
fram es th a t are used. W e've
changed the concept of when the
heart is dead permanently."
They call it "the Lazarus syn
drome" for the man the Bible says
Jesus raised from the dead.
Let's be clear: No one is saying
that people long dead without
medical attention can be revived.
The lucky ones in Buckberg's
study received quick help, and the
reason they suffered cardiac ar
rest was known and could be fixed:
blocked arteries causing a heart
attack, in most cases.
B uckberg's method requires
prompt CPR — rhythmic chest
co m p ressio n s — to m aintain
blood pressure until the patient
gets to a hospital; use of a heart-
lung machine to keep blood and
oxygen moving through the body
w hile d o cto rs rem edy w hat
caused the heart to quiver or stop
in the first place, such as a drug
overdose or a clogged artery; and
special procedures and medicines
to gradually restore blood and
oxygen flow, so a sudden gush
does not cause fresh damage.
Without all three elements, pa
tients might suffer brain damage
if they survive at all.
"You can save the heart and
lose the brain," Buckberg ex
plained.
UCLA and hospitals in Birming
ham, Ala.; Ann Arbor, Mich.; and
in Germany tested Buckberg's
method on 34 patients who had
been in cardiac arrest for an aver
age of 72 minutes. All had failed
resuscitation methods with stan
dard CPR and defibrillation to try
to shock their hearts back to beat
ing.
Only seven died. Only two sur
vivors were left with permanent
neurological dam age. Results
were published in 2006 in the jour
nal Resuscitation.
Dr. Constantine Athanasuleas,
a surgeon at the University of
Alabama at Birmingham, treated
one man in the study who had
been in cardiac arrest for about
an hour and a half. The man's
wife, a nurse, did CPR until a heli
copter brought him to the hospi
tal.
" He was flatlined," with a heart
"as still as your dining room
table," Athanasuleas said.
Doctors put him on a heart-lung
machine, whisked him to the cath
eterization lab to see if he had ar
tery blockages, then did bypass
surgery to detour around them.
"The guy went home and was
neurologically perfect" at least
two years later, the doctor said.
National Health Coverage at 50 Year Low
(AP) — The percentage of U.S. Centers for Disease Con
Americans with private health trol and Prevention.
insurance has hit its low est
"It's bad news," said K en
mark in 50 years, according to neth Thorpe, a health policy
two new governm ent reports. researcher at Emory U niver
About 65 percent o f non- sity.
elderly Americans had private
In th e 197 0 s and e a rly
insurance in 2008, down from 1980s, nearly 80 percent of
67 percent the year before, ac Americans had private cover
cording to prelim inary data age, according to CDC offi
released W ednesday by the cials.
Some experts blam ed the states, due to program s like
faltering economy and corpo M edicaid expanding eligibil
rate decisions to raise health ity. So not all the adults w ith
insurance prem ium s — or do out private coverage are un
away with employee coverage insured, Thorpe said.
— as the main drivers o f the
Indeed, the CDC estim ated
recent data. They say cover that about 44 million A m eri
age statistics for 2009 may cans were uninsured last year
look even worse.
— nearly the same as CDC es
However, public coverage timates for other recent years.
o f ad ults is risin g in som e
Implementing new
nurses-to-student ratio
L aw m ak ers have p a sse d le g isla tio n to
strengthen school nursing services in Oregon.
The approved bill, HB 2693, implements the rec
ommendations of the 2007 Task Force on School
Nurses by establishing standards for nurse-to-
student ratios based upon the health needs of stu
dents.
“School nurses are es
sen tial to add ress the
short term medical needs
o f students,” said Rep.
Tina Kotek of north and
northeast Portland, the
b ill’s c h ie f sponsor.
“There is nothing that can
substitute for the services
that school nurses provide
to our children and our
school communities.”
According to the task Tina Kotek
force, Oregon ranks 49th
in the nation for nurse-to-student ratios. The av
erage school nurse is responsible for some 3,500
students, compared to the recommended ratio of
one nurse to every 750 students. In 54 Oregon
school districts, no school nurses were available.
In all, 60,023 students in Oregon have access to
no or less than half time school nursing services.
“We need to address this shortage. These
nurses are the first responders in our schools, of
ten the first people to notice that something is
amiss in a child’s classroom wellbeing,” Kotek said.
“Children leant better in healthy environments, and
this bill is a positive step tow ard im proving
wellness in our schools.”
The bill provides implementation timelines to
reach the recommended ratio by 2020.
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screening, call 503-251-6137.
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experienced the death of a loved
Cardiac-Rehab
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4X
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variety of topics from pain and helps professionals maintain li month at 5 p.m. The inform a
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age side effects of m edica
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Cancer
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or
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tration isrequired. Call 503-413- Thursday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Lead Poisoning Prevention -
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Meets the first Thursday of each
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(Dbserurr
4747 NE Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd., Portland. OR 97211
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THE
SPINAtCOLUMN
An ongoing senes of questions and answers about Americas natural healing profession
Dr. Billy R. Flowers
Part 27. Chiropractic VS Migraines: Saying
goodbye to the most menacing of headaches
: Can anything be done
for migraines? I've had
them for the last 20 years and
I sincerely can't take it much
longer.
: I had a patient once ask
the same question. Her
concern, however, was that
Chiropractic might hurt. After
becoming a patient, she began
to make progress. Slowly but
surely the nauseating effects
of the migraine were leaving
her. One day, relaxed and with
out pain, she said to me “ I
can't believe that I waited 20
years for th is!" T h a t's one
comment I'll never forget! The
story had a happy, but isn’t it
sad that it had such an unfortu
nate beginning. So many suffer
for so long with their pain. They
literally waste years of their
lives, waiting, thinking that it is
just a temporary condition. Life
itself is a temporary condition.
We are all here for only a while.
Why waste one precious mo
ment, let alone years suffering
needlessly? Find your freedom
through good health NOW.,
naturally. Find your freedom
through C hiropractic...and
make each day count. Isn’t it
time you stepped up to safe,
effective Chiropractic?
Flowers' Chiropractic Office
2124 N.E. Hancock Street, Portland Oregon 97212
Phone: (5 0 3 ) 2 8 7 -5 5 0 4