ELECTRICAL SHOCKS.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXIX, Issue 5277, 21 May 1928, Page 4

ELECTRICAL SHOCKS.

ARTIFICIAL RESPIRATION.

LENGTHY APPLICATION.

In view ot the recent tragic occurrences in several, centres, as the result of which a man lost his life by clotroeution, the following article, which appears in the latest issue of the Bulletin over the signature “ Geneijal Practitioner,” should be rqad with interest:—

Coijrespondens have given .various hints on the best methods of rescuing victims from what is usually spoken of as “ electric shock,” but so no one has drawn attention to the great value; of prompt and continuous a-tiflcial respiration in these cases. Here the primary signs df, death —absence of consciouusness, of pulse, and of respiration—are quite insufficient indications shat a, person is dead.

NECESSITY FOR PERSEVERANCE

Formerly it was held that death from electricity was due to its. effects upon the heart; but while it is admitted that in, a few cases this: may be so, in the gre;a,t majority of cases it is now considered that death is due to paralysis of the respiratory centre, and that to restore the victim artificial respiration should be. resorted to at once, and continued till either the . victim recovers or cooling of, the, body or rigor mortis (death stiffness) sets in. Nothing short of this: should be accepted as real death. One of the first to put forward this view was Professor Stefan Jellinck, of the Vienna University, whose; observations cover thousands: of cases; it is to be regretted that this work “ On Electrical Accidents,” published in 1925, has not yet been translated in English. Lecturing before the Roya.l Society of Medicine- at London in 1912 and again, in 1922-23, he reported a series of successful cases after; artificial respiration, and he followed, these up by reporting another lot in the Medizinsche Klinik of September 23 las 1 .. Support has been given him by a, number of experiments carried out by Dr. Urquhart on behalf of the HydroElectric Power Commission, Ontario', and reported in the Journal of Industrial Hygiene of April, last year. Urquhart, using rabbits, and giving them a shock sufficient to cause death found tha.t y by using artificial respiration within five, or; six minutes after the current had been switched off, he obtained 25 recoveries but of 30. Various English authorities, such as Sir Berlnard Spilsibury and- Dr. Elkin Cumberbatch, have endorsed Jellqnek’s view. A DOCTOR’S MISTAKE.

Dr. Hope, «o>f Liverpool, has reportedl a case in which a doctor, after 30 minutes of artificial respiration, pronounced a man dead ; but the man’s: mates, refusing to accept the verdict, kept tiheir efforts up for one hour longer, and the- nlan recovered. In this case the doctor relied, on the fact that the man had received l a shock of oyer 1000 volts ; but since then cases have occurred of. recovery from over. 2500 volts, and in.one instance quoted by the chief electricaj inspector of factories for the Home Office! a victim consciousness-, after 11,000 volts, though he died : later. Professors Peterson and W'ebster, in theiu American work on “Legal Medicine and Toxicology,” state that artificial respiration should n.ot' be given up under three to six liouvs. Often no signs of life are seen for from one to two hours, but they may be manifested later.

One cannot ower-emphasise the necessity for. early and-, still more important, continuous artificial respiration. Better stfirt it at once than wait til,l the doct/or arrives ; and time should l not be l.bst by r.emoving the body, which sh ould be placed on an insulating -mate rial, such as. a dry rug, Sack, or board without na.ils or metal. Yet it must not be assumed that artificial respira tion is useless uriles's started at oijce. Dr. D’Arsonval, of Paris, has n »ported a successful cas® to which was called twioi hours a.fter the accident, and, since then theife has 1 jeen an increasing number of successes where a considerable time has elapsed' between the shock and- trea* mient. 1

Schaef ;er’s. method of respiration is perhaps the best to use. If no heartbeat is • detected, the rescuer should immed/lately sti,niu|ate the smfface of the. c'h e st-wa,ir over the (heart by rubbing, (if possible with hot and cold tow el s alternately), or snapping the ch' jst with a wet towel or even strikin g the neighbourhood of the heart wa th the fist. The trea tmen t may be ■v/iaijie.d by stimulation of the soles of the feet, by cold- irrigation of the bowels, o r by alternately pouring hot and cold water.over the chest and abdomen. In no case, however, should the; subsidiary- treatment be allowed to interfere with the continuance df artificial respiration l . The victim should not be nibbed till he begins to breu.bhe, but Jhe may be wrapped l up warmly, hot bottles or buckets being placed at the. 'extremities, between the thighs, and u nder the al'mpits. ) THE BEST METHOD.

When, consciousness returns still watch the vic.tim, and don’t leave him alone. If 1 jreathing fails, re-start artificial respiration. On retuhn of consciousness; he may have warm drinks, tea, Ootffee, or a little alcohol, to any of whaich sugar should be add ed, and he should remain for some time in a s,(jmi-ijecumbent position. For some years past the writer has been obtai hing .particulars of fatal cases in A ustralia. and he, has found that, in thia majority, either artificial inspiration has not been- used, or, if used, has been employe# for only a short timite.