babyblade6

Haha CaliMedic209, I know you know what I mean, but I should have been a little more clear on that! Lets try again... we declare our dead patients on scene and we dont declare them at hospital. Lol We will take good care of you here in South Africa, promise!

Wow, then we are indeed fortunate! This is one reason I love this forums! Reality check when we can realise the different situations and challenges that every country deals with! We also have our long response times in the vicinity of 30 - 45 minutes but it does not happen on every call!

Thank you!

We resuscitate all our patients on scene and only transport them when Return of Spontaneous Circulation is obtained. We have the ability to stop resuscitation without Medical control and this usually happens after 20 minutes of good quality ACLS resuscitation. There are special situations where we will continue for a longer period eg. Paediatrics, drownings, hypothermia etc. We have also not had good results with Trauma resuscitations here, except when there is an obvious reversible condition for eg. Hypovolemia that can be sorted out, but it is usually multi-trauma here involving more than just one body system. We initiate CPR in all patients that are in any initial rhythm except for Asystole. (Except if good bystander CPR was initiated prior to our arrival). The main problem we have here in South Africa is our long response times ranging anywhere from 7 - 15 minutes which as you know makes all the difference in a resuscitation.

Hi to all! My name is Anneline and I am a Paramedic from sunny South Africa. I have joined the forum to learn en share with everybody from around the world. Nice to meet you all!