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EDITORIALS: Jasmeet Soar and Jerry P Nolan Cardiopulmonary resuscitation for out of hospital cardiac arrest BMJ 2008; 336: 782-783 [Full text]

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External Cardiac Massage

Kamal Samanta   (15 April 2008)

External Cardiac Massage 15 April 2008
Kamal Samanta, Retired GP. HD8 8RN Send response to journal: Re: External Cardiac Massage	Although 'external cardiac massage' is known in medical history for over a century, it was in the late fifties and early sixties of the twentieth century when the technique was properly developed and evaluated in the United States of America. The success rate was high in many cases by compression alone without artificial ventilation. The first case of a successful pre-hospital 'closed cardiac resuscitation' was performed in Baltimore in the early sixties. In 1971, as a young general practitioner near Calcutta, I gave 'external cardiac massage' on a fifty four year old man, neighbour of mine who had gone into ' cardiac arrest' following a myocardiac infarction ( in the presence of grieving relatives). Luckily, the response was immediate and no artificial ventilation was necessary. Portable oxygen was brought in from a near by chemist and administered. The patient refused hospitalisation. He was treated by his general practitioner, under supervision of a cardiologist. He survived another ten good years. External cardio pulmonary resuscitation was generally unknown to the lay puplic in India in those days. So, failure would have landed me in great deal of trouble because of my antics on a dead person.The incident was labelled as 'a dead man brought to life' and was published as such in your esteemed journal as a "Filler" on JUNE 29 2002, (VOLUME 324). Competing interests: None declared