Robots to administer CPR
Robots will be administering CPR in Urgences‑Santé ambulances. The fire department refused to keep doing it, saying it was too risky for workers to get thrown around and injured while trying to administer it themselves as the ambulance moves at high speeds.
su 10:19 on 2024-03-15 Permalink
Will firefighters soon not be fighting fires due to the high risk of injury? Also, I don’t understand why paramedics cannot perform CPR in ambulances.
Kate 10:54 on 2024-03-15 Permalink
It’s because they get thrown around inside the speeding vehicle. The patient is strapped down, but the paramedic is not.
su 10:55 on 2024-03-15 Permalink
But there are 2 paramedics
Kevin 11:00 on 2024-03-15 Permalink
In the Eastern Townships they’re trying out harnesses to give paramedics some mobility while being attached https://ici.radio-canada.ca/nouvelle/2049257/ceinture-vehicule-urgence-attacher
PatrickC 12:05 on 2024-03-15 Permalink
Thrown around? Does this happen in other cities? You’d think that if this was a widespread problem, it would have been reported before–or dramatized on one of the many TV medical dramas
Kate 12:26 on 2024-03-15 Permalink
I don’t know, but this is what the item says: “Un pompier de Montréal avait été grièvement blessé en 2020. En novembre 2023, une infirmière avait été éjectée d’une ambulance en Estrie dans des circonstances similaires.”
MarcG 12:40 on 2024-03-15 Permalink
There are tons of results if you search the internet for “cpr in ambulance dangerous”.
Joey 13:06 on 2024-03-15 Permalink
Tough call for the EMTs – do you do CPR, even if it poses a risk (to you, not the patient) or do you usher in your own obsolescence by automating this aspect of your work?
MarcG 12:09 on 2024-03-16 Permalink
I imagine someone would still have to operate the CPR robot.
Blork 12:46 on 2024-03-16 Permalink
Yeah, it’s not like CPRing is the only job a paramedic does. Somebody’s got to stabilize the patient on-site, load them into the ambulance, monitor vitals and whatnot during transit to the hospital, watch TikTok videos for 30 minutes while waiting for a slot at the ER, unload the patient, do the paperwork, etc. And that’s just for cardiac events. Plenty of paramedic interventions (most, in fact) don’t even involve CPR.
bob 16:34 on 2024-03-16 Permalink
If you can decrease workload by automating something, then it should be automated. For example, pilot workload has been decreased by all kinds of systems so that you can fly a massive plane with a crew of two because navigation and engine management are handled by automated systems. Plain old cars have automated systems so you don’t need to worry about stalling when shifting gears, or need to fight with the steering wheel when parallel parking. EMTs have an extremely complicated job, keeping track of too much information delivered too quickly, so if they don’t have to worry about CPR, which is simple but takes attention, all the better for them and their patients.
A CPR robot doe not need to be operated, which is the point of it being a robot. And calling it a robot is a little like saying there is AI in your thermostat. It is a belt with a piston that does the compressions.
We have already automated defibrillators to the point where literally anyone can use them.