Free Republic

CAMP LESTER, Okinawa — Two U.S. Naval Hospital Okinawa nurses recently helped save the life of a Japanese man who was showing signs of a heart attack during a flight into Naha International Airport. Navy Lts. Carolyn Currie, a women’s health nurse practitioner, and her husband, Dante Villecco, Intensive Care Unit assistant division officer, administered care to Yuji Omori, 61, on a March 21 China Airlines flight from Taipei to Naha. Omori, who is from Tokyo, was returning to Okinawa after two days of golf with friends in Taiwan. He has been on Okinawa since December 2003 for a construction...

KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Bystanders who want to help a heart attack victim are increasingly being told by 911 dispatchers to skip the mouth-to-mouth resuscitation and concentrate on giving chest compressions until medical help arrives. Driven by medical surveys and continued public resistance to giving mouth-to-mouth, emergency medical groups across the country have either changed or are considering changing the traditional instructions given over the phone to untrained individuals helping a heart attack victim. "If someone is going to do nothing because they are apprehensive about doing mouth-to-mouth, it is simple to tell them to find the middle of the...

WARLORDS perform first aid in air By LTj.g. Shaun Lynch HSL 51 Public Affairs This past Friday the 13th started out no differently than any other day for nine crewmen from Helicopter Anti-Submarine Squadron Light 51 (HSL 51) as they departed NAF to attend training in San Diego. What they couldn’t know was that, before the end of this most notorious day of the year, their spirit and military training would be put to the test. Approximately three hours into their flight, Aviation Warfare Systems Operator 1st Class (AW1) Ed Lyon observed a Japanese citizen collapse while standing in the...

U.S. troops in the Persian Gulf were sent into battle with medical innovations that are proving their promise to cut the number of battlefield deaths due to excessive bleeding. They’ve been designed to control bleeding by speeding up the clotting process. The most successful so far, according to preliminary battlefield reports, is a powder called QuikClot that one day will be standard Marine Corps issue for every individual first- aid kit. QuikClot is a granular substance similar to a clay powder that can be poured directly onto a wound, almost instantly forming a clot and stopping bleeding. It works by...

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) -- As the United States threatens war against Iraq, soldiers are being armed with the newest medical technology, including an experimental bandage soaked in a blood-clotting agent that may save lives on the battlefield. The 4-by-4-inch cloth bandage could be specially helpful for wounds in the neck, groin or armpit, where bleeding is particularly hard to stop. On remote battlefields, wounded soldiers might otherwise die before reaching a hospital.Special Operations also has developed a tourniquet that can be applied with one hand. Researchers are working on other bandages to accelerate natural blood-clotting abilities, including one made from...

US pet owners are learning animal first aid, including mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.The Red Cross is running the £23 courses across America.They use inflatable dog and cat 'dolls' with articulated limbs to practice on.The four-hour course tells people how to do the Heimlich manoeuvre on a cat and how to apply ice to a canine nose bleed.Graduating students are given a certificate in animal first aid, reports the Daily Telegraph.