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Recording paper, think twice
Posted in Company Blog by Mat Packer on December 4, 2008 | No Comments
There are many after market suppliers of recording paper that claim to save you “big dollars” on your consumables purchases. These may be short -term savings but in the long run can cost you a lot of money.
We often receive calls from customers who are experiencing a problem associated with the printing function on their ECG machine. They tell us, “The machine will not print an ECG” or “Every time I press the print button the machine feeds extra sheets of paper after the ECG has been printed” Read more…
Tasers, likely preventing deaths
Posted in Company Blog by Mat Packer on November 27, 2008 | No Comments
Currently, there is a great deal of attention being paid to the use of Tasers by police forces around the world. In the USA, we have two very divided camps. One side says that there have been no proven detrimental effects from the use of Tasers to subdue violent people and the other side says that every week a death is recorded that is attributable to the use of Tasers.
Closer to home, we have the NSW Police Service currently conducting a twelve month trial. The New South Wales Government is refusing to commit to key recommendation’s made in a report by the NSW Ombudsman. The report advocates a two-year ban on any further distribution of the stun gun to police and recommends another independent review of the weapon’s dangers.
So, what are the dangers? Sabin Russell from the San Francisco Chronicle writes:
When 50,000 volts of electricity from a Taser surge across the body, it can instantly incapacitate a person — more safely than a blow from a police baton or a blast of pepper spray, its manufacturer contends.
But cardiologists are concerned that, in certain cases, the device might also interrupt the rhythm of the human heart, throwing it into a potentially fatal chaotic state known as ventricular fibrillation. Rather than pump blood in sequence through its four chambers, a heart in ventricular fibrillation writhes uncontrollably. It is a common cause of sudden death.
Dr. Zian Tseng, a cardiologist at the University of California, believes Tasers are potentially dangerous because a jolt of electricity, at just the right moment in the heartbeat cycle, can trigger ventricular fibrillation.
He ought to know. He uses a precisely timed jolt to throw the hearts of his patients into ventricular fibrillation on a regular basis.
Tseng installs implantable electric defibrillators into the chests of heart patients who are at risk of sudden cardiac arrest. The devices are miniature versions of the electric paddles used to jolt a stalled heart back into its proper rhythm. Vice President Dick Cheney is the most prominent American with such a device implanted in his chest.
Before Tseng can wheel a patient out of the operating room, he must test the new defibrillator by stopping the heart, and watching to see if the life-saving implant does its job.
“There are vulnerable periods in the cardiac cycle, when shocks can cause dangerous arrhythmias,” Tseng said. Known as a T-wave on the heart monitor, the brief pause in pumping takes up about 3 percent of a heartbeat’s cycle. Tseng times his jolt of electricity for that moment, to stop a heart, so the defibrillator can automatically start it again.
People using Tasers, he said, risk jolting a person at precisely the wrong instant. “I think they are dangerous,” he said. “If you are shocking someone repeatedly, it becomes a bit like Russian roulette. At some point, you may hit that vulnerable period.”
Cardiologists also know that the window in which a jolt of electricity can halt a heart expands significantly when a patient is treated with certain drugs, or when the body is flooded with the fear hormone, adrenaline. Patients with heart problems are also more vulnerable to the condition.
Executives at Taser International are aware of the heart’s vulnerability to ventricular fibrillation, but they insist their device is safe. The electrical current used in an operating room to stop a heart is 30 times higher than that produced by a Taser, said Mark Kroll, an electrical engineer and board member of the Scottsdale, Ariz., firm. Medically induced fibrillation involves applying a current directly to the inside of the heart, he added, while a Taser’s current is applied to the clothing and skin.
“The current delivered by a Taser is too weak to induce ventricular fibrillation,” he said. Ventricular fibrillation (VF) is the most common cause of so called Cardiac Arrest in the general population. In fact, 85% of Cardiac Arrests are VF. The only way to return a persons heart rhythm to its normal rhythm is by using a defibrillator.
These days’ defibrillators are appearing in all sorts of places. Airports, Railway Stations Gyms, Health Clubs, many public places and even at your local watering hole. So why can’t police officers carry a defibrillator, either in there patrol car or carried on the same belt as the Taser. A defibrillator is currently available that weighs 495 grams and is 133mm x 126mm x 35 mm. The defibrillator is called Easyport and is currently used by bicycle paramedics in Victoria and South Australia.
There is obviously a lot of argument from both sides going around at the moment and I guess that the jury will be out for some time on this issue. Is it better to use a Taser or a gun to subdue a dangerous person? Personally, I think so but not at the cost of a life. If the risk can be mitigated by a police officer carrying a miniature defibrillator as well as the Taser I think it will go a long way to helping both sides of the argument.
NRMA Careflight & SCHILLER Australia, saving lives together
Posted in Company Blog by Mat Packer on July 2, 2008 | No Comments
The world’s most lightweight emergency patient monitoring system is now aboard the planes and helicopters of NRMA Careflight to better help its staff to save lives.
NRMA Careflight has taken delivery of five of SCHILLER’s mobile ARGUS PRO Lifecare units. Three will be used by Careflight International medical retrieval teams operating across the world from bases in Sydney, Darwin and Perth. Two others are being used on board the helicopters participating in Careflight’s HIRT trial.
SCHILLER Australia managing director Harry Packer said the Argus PRO Life Care unit combines an intensive care patient monitor, defibrillator and transcutaneous pacemaker. It weighs just 2.1kg making it highly portable.
“This unique, lightweight yet powerful device opens up many new horizons in emergency care as well as inter-hospital or in-house patient transfers ,” Mr Packer said.
The unit has already been put to the test by Careflight International on a rescue mission last month involving a man who sustained severe head trauma in Bali.
Careflight’s chief medical officer Dr Alan Garner said there is nothing on the market that compares with it for size, weight and capability.
Dr Garner said savings in weight and size are critical in medical emergencies, particularly for pre-hospital trauma.
“The Schiller Argus Pro Lifecare unit replaces a defibrillator, Capnograph and Propack monitor, saving us valuable space and around 6.5kg,” Dr Garner said.
“Added features such as the alarm functions, 12 lead ECG, Masimo Pulse Oximetry and hot swappable batteries means no other unit gets anywhere near it,” he said.
He said he had received very good feedback from Austrian counterparts who had been using the unit extensively.
Mr Packer said that the Westpac Rescue Helicopter Service and Hawkes Bay Rescue Service in New Zealand and Careflight Queensland had also expressed interest in the system.
NRMA CareFlight, a registered charity, is conducting the world’s first randomised clinical trial (HIRT) to evaluate the benefits of rapid response physician care to head injury patients. CareFlight International, the commercial branch of the organisation, provides medical retrieval services anywhere in the world.
SCHILLER Australia supplies a wide range medical equipment including electrocardiographs, long-term ECG and blood pressure recorders, spirometers, medical IT solutions, patient monitors and external defibrillators. It has offices in Newcastle, NSW and Melbourne, Victoria.
State Rail NSW, Heart Attack Victim
Posted in Company Blog by Mat Packer on August 26, 2005 | No Comments
The Sydney Morning Herald recently reported on the 30 minute delay of central Sydney trains due to a man suffering a cardiac arrest (heart attack) and unfortunately dying.
Perhaps it is timely to remind the general public, rail workers, rail managers, the State Government, train travellers and especially the family and friends of this unfortunate man that his death could easily have been prevented had a public access defibrillator been available on the train.
In Italy, the entire Italian Rail System has a large number of SCHILLER public access defibrillators known as FRED easyport placed throughout the carriages so that members of the public have easy access to this life saving equipment.
These devices have been designed specifically for use by the general public and literally talk you through exactly what you need to do – there is no need for any medical training whatsoever. They are simple to use, low in cost and have the potential to save many lives. 30,000 people suffer a cardiac arrest in Australia every year and, where a public access defibrillator is available and used, a person’s chances of survival can increase from as little as 10% to around 80%.
In the time it takes to activate the emergency stop lever located in a train carriage, a public access defibrillator could be saving someone’s life.