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Folks -

There's been a lot of medical evidence against purge inflating an
unconcious, non-breathing drown victim. The proponents of this dangerous
practice haven't presented any evidence to the contrary. Nonetheless, there
are still some folks who think it's both safe and practical.

Here's an experiment to try in the safety of your own home. You will need:

  * Condom or large-mouth balloon
  * Scuba regulator and tank (air is fine)

Blow the condom/balloon up once or twice with your own breaths. Notice the
size and shape. The condom will inflate so that it's almost balloon shaped
when you've given it a good full breath.

Now put the mouth of the condom over your regulator's mouthpiece. Now, try
to inflate the condom. If you don't have your hand over the regulator vents,
the condom will become ... well ... semi-erect, but it won't balloon up to
full lung size since there isn't sufficient pressure. In order to get
sufficient pressure, you have to close the mouthpiece vents, but this is
much more difficult than it appears and it's hard to get enough coverage
over the vents at the same time as applying just the right amount of
pressure to the purge valve.

You'll get one of two results most of the time:  an underinflated condom
(lung) or overinflated, burst condom (lung).

Now imagine trying to do this at the same pace as you'd be giving rescue
breaths. Try imagine doing this while towing someone in the water. It just
isn't very practical either in or out of the water.

This isn't even the full picture, in real life you'd also have to worry about:
  * Making sure the mouthpiece seal is secure
  * Making sure the victim's airway is open and clear
  * Lung inflations aren't as visible as a condom inflating

Conclusion: take a rescue/CPR/O2 course and stick to what you know.
--
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