Man dies of heart failure after museum refuses to share defibrillator
Man dies of heart failure after museum refuses to share defibrillator
After Gary Hobish collapsed while swing-dancing with friends in Golden Gate Park Sunday, a fellow dancer raced to the nearby de Young Museum in search of a defibrillator. Most people in the group knew Hobish, 70, had a heart condition. Seconds counted.
Inside the museum, Tim O’Brien found himself pleading with a staff member to let him use the life-saving device, or to accompany him back to where Hobish, a legend of the Bay Area music scene, lay unconscious. O’Brien offered the museum staffer his wallet and his watch as collateral.
The museum staffer checked with his boss, but the answer was firm: The de Young defibrillator could not leave the building.
O’Brien sprinted empty handed back to the group, where a doctor who had luckily been on the scene was administering CPR. Paramedics arrived a few minutes later, but by then nearly 10 minutes had gone by, O’Brien said.
But I'm sure it wouldn't interest anybody outside of a small circle of friends
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As a medical professional™️ I just want to point out that not all cardiac arrest can be fixed with a defibrillator. It’s only a few and very specific arrhythmias that a defibrillator can help with. It’s not like in the movies where they just shock people back to life. I don’t know what was wrong with this person’s heart, but there are legal requirements for who can and can’t have access to defibrillators, and chances are they would have died even with access to the machine.
Edit: I cracked the paywall and read the article. The guy had Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy. Defibrillator wouldn’t have done jack shit. This is why untrained civilian randos shouldn’t just be shocking people willy nilly.
Every CPR class will teach you that if it's available to grab a defibrillator and let it do its thing while you do CPR and if it wants to do a shock, that you let it. No harm in actually doing the shocks, like I was taught, you're not going to make their day any worse by breaking ribs or shocking them. For a bystander that didn't know this person's medical history, they made the right decision to seek out a defibrillator. Would it have saved them, probably not. Does that change the fact that the Museum's actions were terrible? No.
Acting like untrained civilians are working with a crash cart and not the briefcase is also silly. In any hospital they'll start up with the automatic mode of any defibrillator before there's a doctor present to give orders. In the end, the people involved did what they could and acting like they're irresponsible and ignorant goes against what could potentially save lives in the larger picture. No doubt this guy was fucked, most people are when their heart stops working properly.
You should be ashamed of calling yourself a medical professional.
Besides your obvious lack of any empathy, you also seem to have very little knowledge of what first aid equipment does and why it's a good thing to have them around.
These kind of defibrillators actually assist civilians in performing CPR and are almost fully automated. What sad excuse for a "professional" does not know this?
Glad people are correcting the record, there's a possibility I could end up with that condition and even though I've taken basic CPR/First Aid for civilians their comment still made me go, Oh shit, really?
Permanently Deleted
Hey [insert condescending name here] - I have Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy. For your and anyone else's information, the disease can cause sustained arrythmia like ventricular tachycardia/fibrillation, and yeah, a defibrillator (as the name would imply) is essential in such cases. If all you're imagining are the structural changes of hearts with HCM you're both ignorant and actively spreading disinformation. The man was out dancing, so presumably not in advanced heart failure. This sounds consistent with cases of sudden onset deadly arrythmia. If they can be terminated sooner rather than later then the heart can return to a healthy rhythm and avoid cardiac arrest entirely.
*Edited in compliance with mod request
A close family member of mine had HCM and was saved several times from defibrillators, internal and external.
The shocks suck real bad (if you're conscious for them) but they sure beat the alternative. I'm glad your family came through it.
I'm replying to my removed comment asking mods to re permit it. I have edited it in accordance with their reason for removal.
I mean, isn't that the point of an AED though
I wonder what the A in AED stands for.
Hmmm... Actual? As in Actually Existing Device? Nah, couldn't be, guess it'll remain a mystery
you're gettin lit up, but before you quit this site for good i wanna say your username is funny
