is underwater CPR a deathwish?

[superhornet59]

okay, you know how in CPR you blow air into someones lungs? well say your partner is unconcious at like 40 feet, and you decide to blow air into his lungs, would this cause barotrauma on the way up (seeing as due to pressure both your lungs are only half full (yes im an optimist )) due to compression, and now your pretty much filling theyre lungs.

the worst being if they bolt for the surface without knowing what you did (like they wake up after you stop).

can this cause barotrauma?

 

[XyseR]

i dunno... but that seems kind of silly beacuse if they do cough up like water.. they're just get more??

 

[Amphibious]

there is absolutly no logical reason to preform underwater CPR.

 

[Bill McIntyre]

I can't understand why you would want to do that. Get the victim to the surface.

 

[island_sands]

okay, you know how in CPR you blow air into someones lungs? well say your partner is unconcious at like 40 feet, and you decide to blow air into his lungs, would this cause barotrauma on the way up (seeing as due to pressure both your lungs are only half full (yes im an optimist )) due to compression, and now your pretty much filling theyre lungs.

the worst being if they bolt for the surface without knowing what you did (like they wake up after you stop).

can this cause barotrauma?

how ever you would perform CPR underwater is a mystery! what happens when you blow air into the victim and he breathes...
a nice gallon of seawater for his first breath intake - he will love you for sure!

 

[jome]

I think the original question was intended as: if you give someone at depth air from your mouth, will their lungs pop as they ascend. If this was the meaning, then the answer is (tadaa!): maybe. It is certainly possible, but more likely scenario is that the diver will let the air out. That happens even with constant weight with heavy packing, many divers cannot keep the air in their lungs at the last few meters and it sort of bursts out. Unless you're laryngospasming or conciously force the air to stay in, it will most likely come out.

Scuba divers are always scared sensless with the story of "the boy who did not breathe on ascent". It's a valid consern, but I doubt a lung rupture would occur in every case. More likely is that the epiglottis/larynx/whatever would just give in and let the air out. Of course it may happen and so it should be avoided, and being in panic is of course a totally different story.

If by CPR he meant artificial respiration of an unconcious diver, then the question is just absurd. Like everyone's said, get him to the surface and then think about CPR. If he's laryngospasming you would not get any air in there anyway. If he's already past that, then you're pretty much too late anyway

 

[BennyB]

He probably meant EAR (Expired Air Resuscitation - mouth-to-mouth) rather than CPR (Cardio Pulmonary Resuscitation - EAR with chest compressions making the heart pump).

 

[BatRay]

Would the air be compressed enough at 40 feet to cause harmful expansion?

 

[DeepThought]

Would the air be compressed enough at 40 feet to cause harmful expansion?

If a diver will have at depth more air in the lungs than his TLC at the surface than expension could be harmful if air isn't exhaled.
It all depends on the specific case (that can be represented in simple math but I don't see the point).

Except in a case of a trapped/tied person I can't see any reason to perform CPR/EAR underwater, especially as it'll delay that person's arrival to the surface.

 

[jome]

If we consider a more likely scenario of two sweethearts, where the other stays at a depth of, say, 10m, while the more experienced macho type diver keeps diving up and down, keeping the other diver supplied with semi-fresh air...Then certainly, the expansion of the air while coming up is something to watch for! Even at pool depths you could risk injury. I'm not saying it WILL happen, but it might.

BTW I've tried this at very shallow depth and it's possible to keep going for a very long time, especially if the person sitting at depth has considerably smaller lungs than the one supplying the air...Needless to say that it's a dangerous game and should not be taken to extremes! (Hmm, I feel a Guinness record brewing...

 

[superhornet59]

indeed, im not very sharp on my terminology here, but basicly pumping air into there lungs to get it going sorta. you might do at at depth because mabye they wont make it to the surface, and if they had a BO then they wont hav seewater in their throat. but how come lungs can rupture before the larynx or eppiglotis fails? would freedivers be more susceptible to this seeing as w work on those more to make them stronger? and say i was to breath compressed air at 10 feet, then go up. unlikely i would rupture a lung(i think) but could it make my lungs more resistant?

 

[Bill McIntyre]

and say i was to breath compressed air at 10 feet, then go up. unlikely i would rupture a lung(i think) but could it make my lungs more resistant?

I've read of people breathing compressed air at the bottom of a swimming pool and then embolizing when they ascended holding their breaths.

 

[naiad]

There would also be the risk that the person would start to recover underwater and take a breath.

Not a good idea, except maybe in exceptional circumstances.

I once saw something like that in a TV documentary about accidents and first aid. There was a reconstruction of an accident in which a boy got his finger stuck in a drain at the bottom of a swimming pool. The people who rescued him were giving him air from their lungs underwater, because they had not yet managed to free him. Fortunately he survived.

Lucia

 

[Amphibious]

Would the air be compressed enough at 40 feet to cause harmful expansion?

in theory 3m is enough to cause a pnumothorax.


Superhornet. I would like to thank you for another "interesting" post :head

 

[Akoni]

If your partner is a fish it's ok to do CPR at 40ft

 

[Erik]

is underwater CPR a deathwish?

No, please try it then next time you encounter an unconscious freediver underwater and let us know how it all turns out :hungover
Seriously, a ridiculous proposition. What you are talking about is not CPR anyway, it's Rescue Breathing. Rescue Breathing is hard enough at the surface- CPR is for all intents impossible anywhere in water and not recommended. Get the guy to the surface, rescue breath if able, and then you can start CPR on a solid surface (land, boat, ice) :blackeye
Then watch out for the :yack


Now I've got one!!! "If I get contractions at 400 metres underwater, and the Klingons submersible appears, and Spock's dad swims by, am I Aquaman?"
Peace little brother,
Erik Y.

 

[DeepThought]

Now I've got one!!! "If I get contractions at 400 metres underwater, and the Klingons submersible appears, and Spock's dad swims by, am I Aquaman?"

Depends, is 20 contractions for the weight like 30 pounds if a klingon lifts?

No gym for home, work out seafloor with 30, but is it for 20 like 30 lb when you no lift it to be for vulcan, for 30 lbs instead? or half is 10 for 20 pounds?

 

[Amphibious]

Noooo Deepthought. NOOOO not that one again!

 

[superhornet59]

is underwater CPR a deathwish?
Now I've got one!!! "If I get contractions at 400 metres underwater, and the Klingons submersible appears, and Spock's dad swims by, am I Aquaman?"
Peace little brother,
Erik Y.

you tell me Laforge