Reply With QuoteWell stated Clive.
Nollaig Chridheil agus Bliadhna Mhath Ur!
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Keeping those hearts tickin'
let's keep the defibrillator talk up.
Humans really have one significant weakness with electricity (apart from their juicy interior). The heart consists of a large number of muscles which pump together in sync and it takes just a narrow range of current at just the right time to knock those muscles out of sync and in that instance they all beat at different times and the heart doesn't work properly. Manual CPR is more designed to keep blood flowing in the body by physically compressing the heart area until medical assistance arrives, the only really effective thing to get those heart muscles beating in sync again is the defibrillator. It does this by monitoring what's left of the heart beat and then applying a single pulse to make all the muscles contract in unison and knock them back into sync again. the time from a heart going into the uncontrolled state (fibrillation) to getting it started again is crucial. It's much better to apply the treatment there and then than wait for paramedics, particularly if you are in a remote area.
Honestly, if this was a machine for getting your bike or truck going you'd have no problem using it. It just seems to be the "medical" association that puts men off. I can understand this, I'm a big guy and I don't like "medical stuff" myself. Once we get over that hurdle and accept that it's just a routine bit of linemans kit for a first aid box then lives will be saved.
Imagine putting one of these on a buddy who'd had a shock and the thing showing an irregular heartbeat. Imagine the feeling when it did it's job and the heartbeat came back solid and you realised you'd just saved his life....
Well stated Clive.
Nollaig Chridheil agus Bliadhna Mhath Ur!
We just had our re-qual CPR training and I have to say to was top notch this year. It used to be done by our safety coordinator but this time they went outside the company and it was IMO money well woth spending. The usual training was kinda a joke and I don't know if it's just the MACHO attitude we sometimes show or the fact that we had to kiss the dummy or whatever but this time we had questions from guys that I'd never expect to be interested. (You know the type) Those AED's are kick ass and a life saver, no, a necessity. Not only did they show us adults but kids, infants, and the proper way to respond to situations where normally it would have been madness. I don't care who you work for, how macho you are, or what the budget says (I know that's stretchin it) but these things save lives and should be a requirement if you're dealing with what we do. Talk to your supervisors and let them know if they aren't already onboard. Let them know the talk that's goin on and pay attention to detail fella's. This is one of those things that's awesome to know, don't have to be applied strictly at work, and hopefully we'll never have to actually use any of the stuff we learned....but if we do, we're ready!
Last edited by shaun; 12-18-2006 at 03:44 PM.
sunday
a sunday in nov , my brother ,lineman steve made contact withe 7200, ,,,this came 2 weeks after we practiced poletop resque,,,he was on the pole , we had backyard bucket and a man on the ground, we are still unclear as to exactly what happened, he was working on de energised secondary ,,it was a wind storm, we think a branch or vine made contact with primary to secondary. ,,but if it could go right it did , the first responder ,,after poletop resque was a police officer who had a defibbulator machine ,,careflight was on a return run ,directly overhead ,,within 3 minutes,he was bound to the hospital,,,he lost a finger ,,but we didnt lose him ,,we are so lucky,,I asked if we could have these devices ,,and they are thinking about it ,, what do they cost ,,,?
AED's
Georgia Power put AED's on our trucks about a year ago. We have one on all of our buckets and a few through out our building where I work. They even gave on to the Union Hall. They have alredy saved two people. One of the guys in our repair shop where they rebuild and test transformers, had a 4kv contact. They used the AED on him and it brought him back. It wasn't long after the Hall got theirs that someone had a heart attack and it worked on him. There was one other case where a crew tried to use one on someone that had a heart attack in their car but it was too late for him. All of this happened with in a few months of us receiving them. We also have trainer models we can practice with when we do our CPR training.
Originally Posted by dwalla-walla
Hooray for Georgia Power.
What puzzles me is that here is a prime example of a progressive utility that is fostering a Safety Culture that must have started at the top. We all know you can't push a rope up hill.
Why wouldn't OSHA be interested enough to send a group of reps there to learn something about what is required to run a safe and efficient utility that provides ample training and equipment for their staff.
With the state of affairs we see on this site and the lack of educated OSHA investigators and inspectors it only seems logical something needs doin'.
Right now we seem to have 'dumb and dumber' trying to regulate something they don't know sh-- about.
We'll never get anywhere at this rate. The carnage will go on, meanwhile lots of kids are being orphaned and lots of widows are left out in the cold.
Hasn't anybody got any gumpsion in this organization.
The old Lineman
The cost of the things is not that high in relative terms. I think they are in the region of 1000 UKP which probably means they are a thousand bucks in the USA.
It's probably worth showing this thread to the management of the other power companies. If they see Georgia Powers results they might see the light.
Being a "tramp" (apparently) I'm pretty tempted to buy one myself to carry around the jobs I work on. As I see it the cost is small compared to some of the test equipment you can buy throughout your working life.
OSHA tends to operate very slowly, and even if you do manage to get them to make some sort of change that you ask for, they probably will have so much red tape mixed in that you wish you never asked. Our local Unions, on the other hand, take the time to put proper language in our contracts that almost anyone can understand, and the Union has the power to enforce contract violations in a timely manner. Maybe the requirement of having an AED available to each foreman, on specific vehicles, or what seems to be most beneficial, and justifiable, should be incorporated into our contracts as part of the working conditions requirements. Possibly this would be even better if it could be a requirement sent down from the International office. I know this wouldn't be an overnight thing, and it would take even longer for it to affect non-union companies, but as many of us are aware, a lot of the OSHA rules that we have are things that originally came from the labor organizations and someone in the government actually realized that, hey, these are good ideas. I'm sure some of you reading this are in a position where you have a good understanding on how something like this could be done, what would we need to do?
Living my life and loving it!!!
AED's no longer just a good idea
I'm not poking holes is your post Tramp67 but you and I know that as long as this thing is union driven it isn't ever going to reach lots and lots of hard working linemen. Some locals are weaker than others and some shops aren't organized.
They shouldn't be left out of the loop.
The only time this thing will happen is when the guys in the the BIG ivory tower see the merit.
A strong case can be made for the adverse effects of electrical current on the myocardial impulses. CPR was adopted for this industry in 1952 because of the high mortality rate and the general public all benefitted from this discovery.
Fifty years later if OSHA was really serious about saving lives they would acknowledge the benefits of the AED's and write in rules that have to be followed by ALL utilities and their contractors nation wide.
Doing this piece meal will take decades and perhaps many decades to accomplish.
I say go for the throat on this one. We've lost too many and are losing more each week. It's high time to move the goal post.
AED's won't save everybody but generally they have a 65% success rate where CPR has only 3%.
The Old Lineman
B.C., thats great brother!!! except to where I got to the last sentence...??? Lets hope and pray you'l never have to use it on yourself unless you have a ground man that can apply it to you. Otherwise we may have to make up a billboard on your line truck that says: "ATTENTION: If you see me laying unconscious near my truck theres is an AED in the jumpseat. Grab it and place the wires on my chest and press button. Thank you." I saw those accident pictures you posted. Stay safe out there!
-Mike
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