The Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, 1932-09-27
THE OLD GUARD STANDS PAT
WITH HAND UNDER CHIN

Connecticut manufacturer SENDS a
folder of an insurance company, on
artificial respiration, and asks If I
will tell him whether there are any
errors in it before he distributes it
among his employees. He explains
that he has found that other leaflets
put out by the same insurance COM
pany have contained erroneous in
formation.
So does this one. The instructions
for restoring breathing in persons ap-
parently drowned, or victims Of gas
poisoning or victims of electric shock
include this erratic bit:
4. Stretch his right arm for.
ward, parallel with his body arI
bend the left arm for his head to
rest on. Face should be turned
aside to allow air.
The error is the bending of one arm
to place it under the head. Both arms
should be extended or stretched for
ward above the head. There is
neither scientific justification nor
sense in lifting the head upon one
arm. The American Red Gross and
all other organizations to the con-
trary Notwithstanding.
Schafer, who gave this method of
artificial respiration to the world, d.
rected that both of the subjects arms
be extended above the head. and the
face be turned to one side for the
free entrance OF air. Whoever had
the temerity to alter the method to
the cratic one taught by the Red
Cross and other agencies in this coun-
try, did so without good and sufficient
reason.
I believe that the lifting of the sub
ject's head even the thickness of the
wrist or forearm may be the straw
which turns the scales against success
in some instances, and that alone
should warrant correction of the error
in the Red Cross method or salts
factory explanation for the change.
The lifting of the head tends to in
terfere with the drainage of any fluid
from the breathing passages.
My friend Prof. Yandell Henderson,
an authority on artificial respiration,
assures me that even If there is some
water in the subjects lungs it Is
quickly absorbed anyway, SO it doesn't
matter whether the subject Is in a
position to favor drainage Of fluid
from the breathing passages. But
Prof. Henderson further assures me
that the chest is in the position most
favorable for inspiration when the
subjects arms are extended above the
head. So I warn the old guard not to
call Prof. Henderson as their witness
in the proceedings. His testimony
won't save their face at all.
There is still a third good reason
why the Red Cross method should be
condemned and discarded and the
Schafer prone pressure method alone
taught and used. That Is the element
of time. It takes a second or two tc
monkey with the arm under the head
It takes less time to stretch both arms
above the head. Maybe this will ap-
peal to the stand-patters who persist
in the teaching of the cratic method
A few years ago the American REQ
Cross was still teaching that victims
of drowning should be first lifted in
the jack-knife position to get the wa
ter out of the chest before beginning
artificial respiration. They quietly
deleted that verse and the illustration
of the deadly maneuver from their
booklet after some of us ventured tt
suggest 1t was a pretty way to waste
precious time.
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