Q: My father had a heart attack yesterday. While he was at home he collapsed and luckily I am trained in CPR, and started immediately. We called the EMT’s who brought him to the hospital and he had an emergency angioplasty. Today he looks pretty good. I am writing you today for 2 reasons. One, I want everyone to understand that they should learn CPR, you never know when you will use it, even for a family member like me. Second, I have a question. They cooled my father in the ER as soon as we got there, they called it “therapeutic hypothermia”.I never heard of that, is it commonly used?
A: First, let us say we hope your father continues to recover, and good job to you having the presence to start CPR immediately. That is one of the important prognostic factors for people to recover after a cardiac arrest, like your father had. Recently, another treatment which has shown significant benefit is “hypothermia” treatment. As you said, this treatment is literally cooling the body temperature in patients who have a cardiac arrest. In studies, it showed significant benefit, and now is commonly being used in emergency rooms throughout the country.
To learn more about therapeutic hypothermia watch this video on VideoMD.com.
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