HSE People - Health and Safety Community

Respected All,

Snakebite present major challenges to companies working in rural and far remote areas. Pakistan is facing severe energy crisis and maximum of its oil and gas reserves are from Khyber Pakhtunkhawa, Balouchistan & Sindh. The Exploration and Production (E&P) Companies have to cover miles for search of these resources and where they found some potential, they set up their temporary living camp and might stay there for as little as 2 months or as long as 1 year in search of oil and/or gas reserves.

Over the past half century the petroleum industry has played a significant role in national development by making large indigenous oil and gas discoveries. These sources are supplying oil + gas to consumption centers through 10000 Kms (approx.) transmission networks and 71,863 Kms of distribution system. This led to millions of man-hours spent in the most difficult terrains throughout Pakistan and snakebite is one of the most likely and biggest threat having severe consequences to the industry workforce.

Snakes are remarkable animals, successful on land (on-shore) and sea (off-shore), forest, grassland, lakes, and desert. E&P Companies are going in search of oil and gas reserves (believe me they don’t follow snakes around their facilities) but the snakes do like their company so they can find something fresh and new to eat. We are scared of them and they too are scared of us but our quest of oil & gas reserves and their to food help us to find each other most often.

There are 4 types of poisonous snakes in Pakistan.

1) Common Cobra (Naja Naja)

2) Common Krait (Bungarus caeruleus)

3) Russell’s Viper (Lundi)

4) Saw Scaled Viper

Their venom is a combination of numerous substances with varying effects. In simple terms, these can be divided into 4 categories:

1) Cytotoxins: This causes local tissue damage.

2) Hematoxins: This causes internal bleeding.

3) Neurotoxins: This affects the nervous system.

4) Cardiotoxins: This type of venom affects directly on the heart and choking it to death within minutes.

Bites by venomous snakes result in a wide range of effects, from simple puncture wounds to life threatening illness and death.

The biggest threat faced by E&P Companies is in search of reserves they have to live in far remote areas and survive with limited resources. A snakebite case is the one having fatal outcomes if gets delayed treatment. The journey wastes precious time to reach a suitable facility to get that treatment and many victims die during the journey (as the victim has no anti venom to rapidly neutralize the venom and no airway equipment to ensure they keep breathing during the journey and to deal with complications at local clinic etc etc).

First Aid to Save a Life (FATSAL) Pakistan in their next post will share what you can do to overcome this most high rank threat so we stay safe, works better, earn better and contribute our skills to help our country find more and more reserves and grow on strong lines.

To Your Health, Safety and Prosperity,

Faisal Javed Mir & First Aid to Save a Life Pakistan

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Respected All,

We published our first ever post on “History of CPR” back in May 2011. In that post we highlighted the contributions of Dr. James Elam and Dr. Peter Safar but today we will try out tiniest effort to unfold some of the historical facts about the modern days CPR and how it evolved.

CPR has origins dating back to 1700th century. It was started in year 1740 when, The Paris Academy of Sciences officially recommended mouth-to-mouth resuscitation for drowning victims. There are numerous honorable names who invested their lives to help the invention and forwarded the noble cause to coming generations. In 1960, a group of resuscitation pioneers, Dr Peter Safar, Dr. James Elam, and William Bennet, combines mouth-to-mouth breathing with chest compressions to create Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation, the lifesaving action we now call “CPR”.

Throughout the years, CPR has evolved from a technique performed almost exclusively by physicians and healthcare professionals. Today it’s a lifesaving skill that is simple enough for anyone to learn. However, research has shown that several factors prevent bystanders from taking action and fear of infection from performing mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.

In 2008 AHA first endorsed Hands-Only CPR – the two-step technique pushing hard and fast in the center of the chest until help arrives to overcome the fear of bystanders of being infected from mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.

Please find below the highlights of the History of Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) from 1740 to date.

1740   The Paris Academy of Sciences officially recommended mouth-to-mouth resuscitation for drowning victims.

1767   The Society for the Recovery of Drowned Persons became the first organized effort to deal with sudden and unexpected death.

1891   Dr. Friedrich Maass performed the first equivocally documented chest compression in humans.

1903   Dr. George Crile reported the first successful use of external chest compressions in human resuscitation.

1904   The first American case of closed-chest cardiac massage was performed by Dr. George Crile.

1954   James Elam was the first to prove that expired air was sufficient to maintain adequate oxygenation.

1956   Dr. Peter Safar and Dr. James Elam invented mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.

1957   The United States military adopted the mouth-to-mouth resuscitation method  to revive unresponsive victims.

1960   Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) was developed. The American Heart Association (AHA) started a program to acquaint physicians with close-chest cardiac resuscitation and became the forerunner of CPR training for the general public.

1963   Cardiologist Leonard Scherlis started the American Heart Association’s CPR Committee, and the same year, the American Heart Association formally endorsed CPR.

1966   The National Research Council of the National Academy of Sciences convened an ad-hoc conference on cardiopulmonary resuscitation.  The conference was the direct result of requests from the American National Red Cross and other agencies to establish standardized training and performance standards for CPR.

1972   Leonard Cobb held the world’s first mass citizen training in CPR in Seattle, Washington called Medic 2.  He helped train over 100,000 people the first two years of the programs.

1981   A program to provide telephone instructions in CPR began in King County, Washington.  The program used emergency dispatchers to give instant directions while the fire department and EMT personnel were en route to the scene.  Dispatcher-assisted CPR  is now standard care for dispatcher centers throughout the United States and then followed by other countries.

Recommendations outlined in the 2010 AHA Guidelines for CPR & ECC continue to simplify CPR for rescuers, so that more people can and will act in the event of any emergency. More user friendly and convenient ways (like Hands-Only CPR) are developed to get CPR and first aid training into the hands of every person.

To Your Health, Safety and Prosperity,

Faisal Javed Mir & First Aid to Save a Life Pakistan

Respected Subscribers & Readers,

First Aid to Save a Life Pakistan is pleased to share with you that this year’s “World Congress on Cardiology Scientific Session” is scheduled in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Join your colleagues from across the globe at the WCC Scientific Sessions 2012 Dubai to share the latest science on treatment and prevention. It is the forum for all experts in the field as well as commercial, public and non-governmental parties to meet and exchange knowledge. This event shall benefit the world from April 18 to 22, 2012.

The World Congress of Cardiology is a major international event that not only focuses on the cardiology problems of the region in which it is hosted −by working alongside our national members, and for 2012 this will be the Middle East − it also addresses and tackles the importance of cardiovascular disease on a global scale by attracting a strong and enviable international faculty of experts.

Dr Arif Abdullatif Al Mulla, Dr Alawi Alsheikh-Ali, Dr Jeroen Bax and Dr Robert Bonow are leading the WCC 2012 Scientific Programme Committee (SPC) that develops the  following scientific topics which will be covered during the WCC Scientific Sessions 2012 by world-renowned speakers:

• Arrhythmias
• Heart failure / Left ventricular function / Myocardial function
• Valvular disease / Pulmonary circulation / Myocardial-pericardial disease
• Ischemia / Coronary artery disease / Coronary interventions
• Peripheral circulation / Stroke / Non-coronary interventions
• Hypertension
• Epidemiology / Prevention / Health promotion / Health advocacy
• Dyslipidemia & Metabolic disorders
• Basic science
• Cardiac imaging
• Pediatrics / Congenital heart disease
• Nursing

Read the full advanced programme here.

Special sessions including joint sessions with WHF members, the World Health Organization, the Gulf Heart Association or the Pan Arab Heart Failure Association will also feature in WCC 2012 scientific programme.

For the first time, two workshops on Echocardiography and Electrocardiography are jointly organized with Emirates Cardiac Society.

The event shall be organized at Dubai International Convention Centre (DICEC), Sheikh Zayed Road, World Trade Centre, Roundabout, Dubai.

First Aid to Save a Life Pakistan wish them very best of luck for success of this event.

To Our Health and Safety,

Faisal Javed Mir & First Aid to Save a Life Pakistan