Iditarod Dog Saved With Mouth-To-Snout CPR

KETV ^ | 8/10/12

[Slings and Arrows]

An Iditarod sled dog, who collapsed navigating a steep section of Alaska's Dalzell Gorge, was saved by his racer-owner thanks to some mouth-to-snout CPR.

Scott "Mushing Mortician" Janssen, 51, told the Anchorage Daily News that the 9-year-old husky, named Marshall, was pulling hard at the sled and then fell to the ground.

"I know what death looks like, and he was gone. Nobody home," the Anchorage funeral home owner told the newspaper.

According to the publication, Janssen saw that the husky stopped breathing, so he started CPR by putting his mouth over the dog's snout, breathing air into his lungs and compressing his chest.

"I'm like 'C'mon dude, please come back.' And he did," Janssen said.

Janssen told the newspaper that Marshall was carried in the sled for the next 32 miles until the team reached the Rohn checkpoint. He was treated by a veterinarian, given an IV and was prepped to be flown back to Anchorage.

"He's doing just fine. He's still at the checkpoint, and they're flying him back home today," Janssen said.

Read more: http://www.ketv.com/sports/30635696/detail.html#ixzz1omlTIVoo

[Slings and Arrows]

I am the soul of diplomacy and tact.

[Osage Orange]

I've personally done CPR on at least 65 people...maybe nearer 100. I dunno....I've never counted.

I'd say 1/2 of those make it..to another hospital room. And probably more than half of those don't make it out of the hospital.

CPR is done on thousands of people that have multiple co-morbidity's. And the odds of surviving CPR are real bad....

FWIW-

[Slings and Arrows]

Sounds reasonable to me.

The only time I was involved in CPR was when I was a volunteer EMT. Trauma arrest; bagged the patient for 40 miles. You can guess the outcome.

[Slings and Arrows]

P.S. I take it you’re a health care professional working in hospital. No doubt field and layperson CPR would have a poorer track record.

[Osage Orange]

That would be correct...