Antihistamines: Everything You Need to Know
Histamine is a chemical that is normally produced in the body and stored in allergic cells, such as mast cells and basophils. In people with allergies, histamine is released from these cells in a response to allergens.
Histamine binds to the histamine receptor, which is present on various cells in the body, and results in allergic symptoms such as sneezing, itchy eyes, itchy nose, hives, or even anaphylaxis. Antihistamines are medications that block the receptor for histamine, thereby stopping the symptoms that histamine causes.
Personal Locator Beacons (PLBs)What are they?
Small, emergency distress beacons that emit a UHF radio signal when activated. Search and Rescue operations use the signal to ‘find’ the beacons, as detailed below.
406 MHz beacons must be registered with Rescue Coordination Centre of New Zealand (RCCNZ) and a recommendation for GPS equipped ones would also be a good idea.
Note: Personal locator beacons must only be used in life threatening situations.
How do they work?
Once activated, the signal is picked up by satellite and/or aircraft. An alert message is relayed to the nearest Local User Terminal (LUT, ground station), which calculates the beacon’s position and sends the data to the Mission Control Centre (MCC). The MCC then sends the information to the RCCNZ, which in turn initiates a class II rescue operation.
The Beacons operate with a clear view of the sky; avoid gorges or heavy foliage. Do not turn off once activated. Stay put.
If it is a false alarm, get a message to RCCNZ (0508-4RCCNZ, or 0508-472-269 ) or Police as soon as possible.
Failure to do this may divert SAR resources from genuine emergencies and in doing so may endanger lives.
Before leaving....
1. Know how and when to activate the beacon.
2. Check the batteries and carry spares if user-replaceable type.
3. Check the beacon is operational (some units have a test functions to do this).
To hire a PLB or gain more info go to:
»www.beacons.org.nz
»www.rescuebeaconhire.co.nz/
Drowning Physiology after the Rescue
by Paul Daniels, M. S. Madison, Wisconsin School Community Recreation:
In America drowning is the third largest cause of accidental death, involving over 7,000 victims annually. Many of these fatalities could be prevented with proper rescue and follow-up life support procedures. It is important that recreation professionals and other persons responsible for aquatics programs understand the basic physiological threats present during and following drowning situations.
Not all drowning victims literally inhale water into their lungs. The extreme sensitivity of upper airway passages often causes a laryngeal spasm, sealing off and preventing water from entering the lungs. These spasms lead to dry drowning. Victims of dry drowning often respond to artificial ventilation without further complications if the symptoms are identified and reached soon enough, generally within one to two minutes of submersion.
Wet drowning occurs when water is inhaled past the larynx into the lungs, severely complicating rescue and life support procedures. This situation has been reported to occur in 90% of all drownings, although results of related research vary to a great degree.
When water enters the lungs the victim's blood chemistry is rapidly altered, often leading to heart failure. In fresh water drowning, inhaled water is immediately absorbed into the blood causing hemodilution. The diluted blood quickly leads to heart failure due to ventricular fibrillation, a condition simply described as shivering of the heart, or anoxia (oxygen starvation). Sea or salt water creates the opposite effect. Water is drawn from the blood into the lungs. This process causes the blood to become more concentrated, leading to an increased load on the heart and heart failure. Older drowning victims may experience immediate heart failure as a result of the initial trauma of drowning, particularly in extremely cold water.
In any type of drowning situation, it is critical for the rescuer and responding rescue squad to be thoroughly trained in both artificial resuscitation and cardio-pulmonary resuscitation techniques. Artificial resuscitation alone is only adequate in some dry drowning situations, when the victim is reached before heart failure occurs. If heart failure occurs before or after the rescue, cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) is required. When necessary, CPR should be initiated, even after a victim's prolonged submersion, and continued indefinitely. Successful treatment without further complications has been documented after more than 40 minutes of submersion and after hours of applied CPR.
The physiological effect of drowning differs according to the type of water. However, immediate emergency procedures are the same.
Victims of prolonged submersion are most likely to be revived after submersion in cold water, due to a physiological phenomenon called "diver's reflex". The diver's reflex condition basically causes oxygenated blood to be shunted from one's extremities and concentrated in vital areas including the heart, lungs and brain. Other physiological processes are also "slowed down," further prolonging adequate oxygenation of vital areas. Therefore, CPR should always be initiated regardless of elapsed time in cold water drownings.
In the event a drowning victim is revived, or water is suspected to have entered the lungs, immediate hospitalisation is necessary. Damage to the lungs, although often initially undetectable, can result in "delayed death subsequent to near-drowning," commonly referred to as "secondary drowning."
Secondary drowning is a sudden, rapidly deteriorating condition generally occurring without clear warning between one and forty-eight hours after initial rescue procedures. For practical purposes, it represents rapid "pneumonia-like" flooding of the lungs with pulmonary fluids. All near-drowning victims should be rapidly transported to the hospital and admitted as potential medical emergencies. Continuous observation. X-ray procedures, oxygen, intravenous treatment, plasma and advanced life support procedures may be necessary. However, if the victim is kept alive for 24 hours a complete recovery is likely.
Professionals with responsibilities in the area of aquatics, or community members involved in aquatic activities need to understand factors that contribute to death by drowning. It is essential that persons responsible for directly supervising aquatic activities be required to have current certification and regular training in advanced lifesaving as well as cardio-pulmonary resuscitation, which includes artificial resuscitation and procedures for dealing with choking.
The NZ Resuscitation Council brought in changes at the end of December 2010 The Heimlich maneuver or abdominal thrusts are no longer used. They have been replaced by chest thrusts.
Chocking is an immediate life threatening condition and the patient has only minutes before they loose consciousness unless the airway is cleared.
If the patient is coughing, they have a partially blocked airway. Encourage them to keep coughing.
If your patient can not make any noise and can only respond by nodding them they have a fully obstructed airway. Bend them over slightly, supporting their upper body with your arm and give 5 back blows between the shoulder blades.
If this has not dislodged the obstruction give 5 chest thrusts by standing behind the person and wrapping your arms around their chest (below the breasts for women) and give hard pulls against their chest.
If you cannot get your arms around the patient stand them back against a solid wall and push with both hands on their sternum five times. Repeat chest thrusts and back blows until you either remove the obstruction or the patient becomes unconscious.
If your patient goes unconscious call 111 and begin CPR with the addition of looking in the patient’s mouth before giving any breaths.
CHILD. If a child is choking you would do the same procedure for an adult and remember to get down to your child’s level when helping them. If they lose consciousness call 111 and start CPR.
This is an immediately life threatening condition and requires help straight away.
The common medical understanding is that cardiac arrest victims become unconscious within 20 seconds of the loss of blood flow (heart stops).
That's not quite the same thing as losing "all brain activity." It just means the brain is incapable of keeping you awake.
All brain activity is thought to be over by about 3-4 minutes from the momen
t the heart stops, which is one reason why we want to start CPR as quickly as possible.
It's easy: push on the chest fast and hard for 30 compressions then tilt the head back and give 2 breaths while someone else calls 111.
If you're by yourself, call 111 first then start compressions. Make it quick.
Not only does the brain stop working as it runs out of oxygen and sugar (brought to the brain by blood flow supplied by the heart), blood gets trapped in the brain until it starts flowing again. That stale blood is accumulating acids, free radical oxygen molecules and other toxins while it sits there.
As soon as you start pumping on the chest and pushing the stale blood around, you're going to bathe the brain in those toxins. The less time those toxins have to build up, the better. It's almost as important to flush those toxins out as it is to bring fresh nutrients and oxygen in.
No matter how you look at it, the quicker you start CPR, the better.
What is the difference between a heart attack and a cardiac arrest?
A heart attack, or myocardial infarction, occurs when a coronary artery (one of the arteries that supplies blood to the heart muscle) becomes suddenly blocked.
The sudden blockage robs a portion of the heart muscle of its vital blood supply, and the muscle dies. So a heart attack is the death of a part of the heart muscle.
The sudden blockage of a coronary artery is usually caused by the rupture of a plaque in the artery. Plaque rupture can produce a variety of clinical conditions -- including heart attacks and unstable angina. If blood flow can be restored within a few hours, permanent damage to the heart muscle can usually be minimised.
A cardiac arrest, in contrast, is caused by a sudden heart arrhythmia called ventricular fibrillation. In ventricular fibrillation, the electrical signals within the heart suddenly become completely chaotic. Because these electrical signals control the timing and the organization of the heartbeat, when those signals degenerate to total chaos, the heart suddenly stops beating. That is, it goes into "cardiac arrest." The most common outcome of a cardiac arrest is sudden death.
The treatment for a cardiac arrest is to begin immediate cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) to support the victim's circulation, and, as soon as possible, to deliver a large electrical shock to the heart with a device called a "defibrillator." The large shock allows the heart's electrical signal to re-organise itself, and the heart starts beating again. Unfortunately, because death occurs within a few minutes of cardiac arrest unless expert help is available, the large majority of individuals who suffer cardiac arrest are not successfully resuscitated.
Anaphylaxis is a severe allergy that can affect as much as 15% of the population. If the victim is unconscious, follow the DRSABC’s.
Look for several telltale signs that indicate an allergic reaction:
• Itching
• Redness
• Hives (raised welts)
• Scratchy throat
• Dry mouth
• Trouble breathing or wheezing
• Dizziness
• Weakness
It is not necessary to have all of the signs for it to be an allergy. If you suspect an allergic reaction and the victim has trouble breathing or dizziness, it is probably anaphylaxis.
Call 111 immediately if you suspect anaphylaxis.
Allergic reactions continue as long as the allergen is in contact with the body. To remove allergens:
• Bee stingers: Remove the stinger as quickly as possible. How you remove it doesn't matter as much as how fast you remove it. The longer the bee's stinger is in the skin, the stronger the reaction will be.
• Topical allergens. Wash the toxin away with soap and water as soon as possible.
• Food or drugs: allergens that are ingested or injected are in the body and there's not really much you can do to minimize the exposure.
Epinephrine (also known as adrenaline) is the drug that stops anaphylactic reactions in their tracks. Epinephrine is administered with an automatic syringe that injects the drug by pushing the syringe against the body.
Diabetes is emerging fast as the biggest health catastrophe the world has ever seen. It will overwhelm healthcare resources everywhere and will jeopardise the health and lives of over half a million New Zealanders within the next decade. Type 2 diabetes doesn't always have clear symptoms, and often isn't diagnosed until found accidentally during a physical or check-up. Is the condition really symptomless or are there early warning signs that can sound the alarm?
Signs and Symptoms of Diabetes
• Feeling excessively tired
• Unquenchable thirst
• Frequent urination
• Numbness and/or tingling in feet or hands
• Changes in eyesight, such as blurry vision
• Unexpected weight loss
• Increase in infections or wounds that won't heal
• Breath that smells fruity
If you, or someone you know, have one or more of these symptoms, make an appointment to see your doctor.
Burns destroy skin, which controls the amount of heat our bodies retain or release, holds in fluids, and protects us from infection. While minor burns on fingers and hands are usually not dangerous, burns injuring even relatively small areas of skin can develop serious complications. If you think a burn of any type is significant, do not hesitate to call 111 immediately.
Here's How:
1. STAY SAFE! Follow DRSABC’s and wear gloves if you have them.
2. Treating a burn begins with stopping the burning process. Cool the burned area with cool running water for up to 20 minutes for a small area and 10 minutes for a large area. Call 111.
If an ambulance is coming, continue running water over the burned area until the ambulance arrives.
3. Look for blistering, sloughing, or charred (blackened) skin.
Blistering or sloughing (skin coming off) means the top layer of skin is completely damaged and complications are likely. Charring indicates even deeper damage to all three layers of skin
If the damaged area is bigger than one entire arm or the whole abdomen, call 111.
• Victims with burns to the following areas need urgent medical assistance
• face
• neck
• hands
• feet
• genitalia
Mild burns with reddened skin and no blisters may be treated with a topical burn ointment or spray to reduce pain.
Cool water (not cold or warm) for 20 minutes then cover with glad wrap/cling film.
