Meet the AED

A 12 year-old child recently died on a Walt Disney ride. His father saw him pass out on the rollercoaster. He subsequently took the unconsious child off the ride and performed CPR. By the time paramedics arrived, he was dead. After a thorough investigation, it was determined that there was no bodily injury or mechanical error to the ride. Autopsy results showed that the child had "congenital heart abnormalities".


When a child dies in the PICU, it is undeniably sad and difficult. When a child "suddenly" dies in public, I find that even sadder. Maybe it's because in the hospital we know that we literally did everything possible. The resources and technology to bring someone back to life is only a few feet away if not inches. In the public setting it's a gamble. Not everyone knows CPR. If they do, chances are they aren't doing it right. More importantly, not all public settings have the Automatic External Defibrillator (AED). If used correctly, the AED will drastically increase a victim's chance for survival.

What is the AED? Over the past few years, the AED has gained some media attention. Mostly you can find them in airports, airplanes, malls, pools, and some schools. Ever see 'ER'? Remember when they "shock" a dying patient on the gurney? The AED is a MUCH simpler version of that. User-friendly for the lay public. Those certified in CPR have seen them.

Why use the AED? Shocking as it may sound, CPR doesn't save a life, it preserves a life. When someone suddenly collapses in public, your first instinct is do CPR. When the paramedics arrive, they take over because they have the resources and skills to deal with what is going on. But what the public doesn't now is that when someone suddenly collapses in public and is unconsious, chances are that there is something seriously wrong. In both children and adults, most likely it is their heart. I believe that CPR only preserves a life because when you are doing CPR on someone you are theoretically squeezing their heart so that blood can circulate to the brain. It minimizes the risk of brain damage and buys time until someone calls 911 and the paramedics come. But CPR does not fix the underlying problem; however, the AED will. The AED saves a life because the problem is fixed sooner.

What does the AED do? The heart is a complex muscle. It pumps blood to and from the heart through synchronized contractions. Normally, it can withstand day-to-day stresses...it just pumps a little faster. However, in cases of kids and adults with underlying "congenital heart defects", the rhythmic motion of the heart can be thrown off with enough stress. In this case, the child was on a rollercoaster and was probably screaming, scared, and yelling. His heart literally went "haywire" on the ride and mostly likely caused him to pass out from the lack of blood pumping to his brain.

His father did the right thing by initiating CPR, but the amusement park should have had an AED available. Maybe they did and that piece of information didn't reach the media, but I can't speculate. But there have been numerous deaths on these rides!

The AED literally resets (or reboots the heart for you IT peeps) the electrical activity of the heart by shooting several hundred joules of electricity through the chest. The heart is then shocked back into it's rhythmic movements. Blood can now flow normally through the body.

How do you use the AED? It's very simple to use. Three steps and that's it. The machine even talks you through each of the three steps.

Step1: Place pads on patient as illustrated.

Step2: Charge machine by pressing the flashing button.

Step3: Release the charge by pressing the other flashing button. Resume CPR.

And that's it! My intention for this blog was to introduce you to the AED and to highlight it's importance. By no means was this to teach you how to use it. If anything, I wanted to convince you to take a CPR class and learn it the right way.

AEDs are designed for the public to use in emergencies. If you aren't certified in CPR, you should be. If you aren't familiar with AEDs you should be. Next time you go to the mall or the airport, look alongside the walls and you just might see an AED right next to the fire extinguisher.

To find the nearest CPR class in your area, click here.

Randomness Part II

I haven't blogged in a while. I've hit a dry spell with Tanookie moments plus haven't been in the mood lately. You think I would be blogging everyday with the free time I've had lately, but nope. You see, for the past 6 weeks (and counting), I've been jobless. No joke. I'm in between jobs right now. I'm waiting to start my nurse practitioner job at a Pediatric Gastroenterology practice in Baltimore. My contracts are pending and I can't legally work until they are all approved. It's been a tedious and hellacious process. Definitely worth blogging about, but I'll wait until I've been safely approved to prevent any backlashing on part of the Maryland Board of Nursing.

Anyways, I've been keeping myself busy around the house, running on the treadmill, meeting up with friends, seeing family, and attending plenty of graduations, weddings, picnics, and parties.

So, here's some news articles I have found interesting added with a bit of Tanookie-sassiness. (Click on the title of the paragraph.)

Article 1: Who cares?
I'm usually pretty up-to-date with the latest celebrity gossip, but when I heard this, I couldn't help but shake my head. I haven't heard a 'Backstreet Boys' song in over 5 years! I honestly thought that this boy-band broke up years ago. What mall or amusement park have they been performing in? He's 33 years old! There should be a boy-band rule that you are automatically turned over to the police once a band member turns 30 years old! I think I might have actually seen this Backstreet Boy enter the backdoor of the house featured on NBC's "On-line Predators".

Article2: What the?!?!
I find it highly amusing when there are news stories about a "latest study" are released to the public. It causes mass hysteria in the general public and forces millions of hyperchondriacs to call their general practitioners and question their care. This article was particularly funny. Not because of what the study says, but the link associated with the article. If you scroll to the bottom of the article it states, "For more information click on the link www.PNAS.COM". Ha! P-NAS!

Is it a wedding or a funeral?

Shows like "Entertainment Tonight" and "Access Hollywood" were all over the details of the wedding of Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban. They also forgot to mention that the bride looked like corpse. Look at this picture! She might as well be riding in the back of a hurse. How pale can she be?!?! It's absolutely disgusting! Nicole also forgot to invite her long-lost sister...

...Marcia Cross!
If her hair weren't red, you'd really be able to see just how pale she really is!

Article 3: Lastly...NPs in the news and what I actually do...

Rewind...

...In the beginning of May, I made a trip out to Ohio to visit my old friend Meenu.















Here's our history: The good old days! Meens and I go way back to nursing school 7 years ago when she and I wore those nasty white nursing uniforms and practiced dressing wounds on mannequins in the clinical sim labs. Now she's married and moved to Ohio last summer.

I was honored to be one of her first friends from Maryland to visit Meenu and her husband. She has a wonderful home and was a gracious hostess while I was there! Here are some pictures to document my visit:

This was where I stayed for the weekend. Meenu had a basket of goodies and a present waiting for me in the room.
I LOVED that the guest room had it's own bathroom and is on a separate floor than the master bedroom. It was like living in an apartment loft! Did I mention the bathroom?!?!? I LOVE it! You'll see in a minute...

If you didn't know me already, I'm a BIG fan of clean and spacious bathrooms. It was VERY refreshing not having to share a bathroom littered with various types of body hair or walking into a bathroom where I had to turn the fan on. So when I saw this private, clean, and barely used bathroom with a skylight I was delighted!!! I loved how I didn't have to turn the lights on during the day because the room was filled with natural light.



Meenu and her sweet sister-in-law, Kiren, took me to the Cleveland Science Center. Aside from the second floor attractions, this robot was the highlight of the science center. Basically, you type in a word and the robot will say it out loud for everyone to hear. We took advantage of this robot by typing some pretty vulgar things. We weren't very good girls here! "Meenu! Meenu!"

The second floor had more "Hands On" things for us do. We were busy bees bouncing from one station to another. "Look at this!!!" we'd scream from across the room.

This mirror trick was like being on the "Matrix". Kiren did a great job looking like she was going to kick Keeanu's a$$.


Hassan laughed out loud when he first saw this picture of me. For some odd reason, he finds it highly entertaining when I have a cheesy smile or when my fingers are stretched out completely. In this picture, I've got both and Hassan ended up imitating me. Weirdo.


Aww...here's the both of us in front of downtown Cleveland. Here's an interesting fact about my trip: Meens and I did so much shopping that weekend that I didn't have to wear a single shirt that I packed! Well...with the exception of this photo. But it was the jacket that was new!

That night I visited Meenu's in-laws and a wonderful dinner at their home. Later, we caught a late show of "MI:iii".

On my last day, Meenu and I visited a local flea market. Later, we went to a British antique car show. Her husband, Mandeep is a fanatic about British cars and enjoys fixing up old cars. He entered his 1976(?) Mini Cooper in this car show. He actually purchased this car in England and shipped it overseas to Ohio. I really enjoyed looking at all the cars and asked a lot of questions. I learned quite a bit about Morris Minor cars. After the show, we drove home in this car. The steering wheel was on the right side AND it was a manual. Try driving that! Cute car.


I was sad to leave Meenu. I really had a great time and hope to visit again with Hassan. She's got a lovely family in Cleveland!

The "Real" Genius

Congratulations, Showieb! Not only has he finished a little thing called "Med School", but he finally watched "Real Genius" (after MUCH pursuasion on my part). Not only is he now a doctor, but more importantly he has learned the "significance of Kent and Jesus" in this movie. Big kudos for that!

As promised, he wanted EVERYONE to know that he sat through this movie and endured the torture of an 80's movie plot about nerds and listened to all three ridiculous 80's montages from begnning to end. My only hope is that he enjoyed a few jokes or lines in the movie!

So this is a tribute to Showieb, the only doctor who listened to this silly NP's advice and watched "Real Genius" with her in his final days in Maryland. Little did he know that it was not the jokes in the movie that ultimately made her happy, but the mere fact that someone actually listened to her recommendations! So what if it was with a little force!

Good luck in Rochester, Showieb! We'll miss your presence in our house. Murry will always keep a warm seat next to him in the window. Enjoy the summer while it's hot and prepare your bachelor pad for a cold winter up North! Hope the picture of Murry will keep you memories of him warm and fuzzy... "Awww, Murry!"

Where in the World is...

My brother, Mikey emailed me some pics from his recent vacation with my parents out West. See if you can tell what movie scenes these were taken from:

Recognize this scene?

How about this scene?
Hint: Mikey is giving you a HUGE hint by pretending to be the main actor in the movie.