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List, I'm not Doc, or even a paramedic, but I was discussing the idea of using the purge button as a demand valve for O2 (which is what is anyway) on an unconscious victim with a friend who's a paramed, and here's what I gleaned out: 1) Obviously you don't want to overinflate your victim, but there are a couple of factors to take into consideration-- A) Since you're most likely not intubating the victim before you shove the reg in his (we'll use the male pronoun here for simplicity) mouth, one consideration is to make sure that you actually have an airway open, and not a direct line to the stomach. Inflating the gastrointestinal area would do you no good at all. B) If the person is unconscious, they most likely were brought up quickly, and are possibly the recipient of a well placed pneumothorax (burst --> collapsed lung). Inflating the chest cavity around a collapsed lung can be quite hazardous, maybe even resulting in some sort of medi-jargon that basically meant that the heart gets squished over away from the collapsed lung, ergo, the victim is in a worse bind than they were a minute ago. 2) On the other hand, if you can get around these possibilities, or ensure they don't exist, have at it. Just make sure you're not teaching yourself the finer points of this while you're administering it.... especially on me. ;) Like I said, I'm no doctor, but I know a good idea when I see it. Safe Diving, Rob Sluys -- Send mail for the `techdiver' mailing list to `techdiver@aquanaut.com'. Send subscribe/unsubscribe requests to `techdiver-request@aquanaut.com'.
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