CPR in space is possible maybe

Last summer I wrote about the many problems associated with performing surgery in outer space. [Link here.]  Not surprisingly, I was highly skeptical about such issues as training astronauts to operate on each other and the difficulties in taking along enough supplies to deal with unexpected trauma and surgical diseases.

At least one commentor on that post felt that NASA had all the answers. But another said, “What NASA never wants to discuss publicly is the scenario: If X happens then you die.”

Not to be outdone, the European Space Agency recently released a YouTube video illustrating how cardiopulmonary resuscitation could be carried out in a weightless environment.



You can see that the technique is rather awkward and questionably effective. To my knowledge, the rescuer falling on the victim is not currently recommended in the latest CPR guidelines.

Assuming that by some miracle the victim survives CPR, what would happen to him? Would he be transferred to the intensive care unit on the spaceship? Would there be a ventilator? What about an endotracheal tube and someone to insert it? Who would monitor the patient? Would that person be subject to work hours limits?

Here’s what I think.

If you have a cardiac arrest on the way to Mars, you’re not only in deep space, you’re in deep doodoo.

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