Mr Simon Gould1
1LifeVac Australia, BELMONT, Australia, 2Medics for Life, BELMONT, Australia
Biography:
Owner/director of LifeVac Australia, Medics for Life, and a RACGP-accredited clinical educator. Simon holds qualifications in pre-hospital emergency care (para-medical science), Education Training and Assessment. Roles include Advanced Care Paramedic, Operations Manager GP Access After Hours, and primary care clinical educator for over 25 years in advanced resuscitation and triage.
Abstract:
The traditional Food Pyramid and its saturated fat/cholesterol = obesity/heart disease i.e. Keyes hypothesis, is the perfect example of protected scientific dogma, immune from scientific reassessment, until recently. Although lacking relevant evidence in the control of public health issues such as diabetes, obesity, and heart disease, this dogma-controlled health policy, literature, and narrative for decades. It is not difficult to see a parallel with the DRSABCD mnemonic when treated as a strict, chronological list of oversimplified actions. It has escaped honest evaluation of the science and claimed utility beyond its scope. While correctly identifying the important elements in the singular scenario of collapse, it places them in an order not supported by science or outcome data for common cardiac arrest aetiologies, despite being taught as having universality and eternal utility.
Based on a number of false assumptions, that one only needs universal compliance to achieve efficacy. The predominant aetiology is sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) of cardiac origin. All cost-benefit analyses have concluded that the pre-ambulance period (i.e. ≈ 8 minutes from the arrest) is the determining focus for long-term cerebral survival in OHCA. This has serious implications for the viability of patients managed traditionally prior to paramedical care. As taught, the DRSABCD is not a clinically ideal set of chronological priorities to maximise outcomes. This oversimplified approach to OHCA, based on its appeal to tradition, false assumptions, and the pre-determined accepted notions of the public and first responders/community paramedical volunteers as an incapable and ignorant mass, needs a new paradigm.