OT- to fix a snakebite

[Rusty]

For some reason this was brought out of the dark closets of my memory a few days ago. Thinking about it then, then Joe posted about his encounter.

Several years ago I took Jr. to a demonstration put on by Missionary Aviation Fellowship where they showed some of their "tools of the trade." They were giving plane rides and showing things they had developed for use in the field. They had a cassette player that had a built in hand crank generator so it would run where batteries were hard to come by. One thing that really caught my eye was a snake bite kit they had put together. It too was crank operated and was made so that when someone is bit twin leads with contacts were placed on the bite and the handle cranked. It sent a high voltage charge into the bite about like a spark plug wire and the high voltage charge destroyed the proteins in the venom rendering it null and void. They said they once had a missionary who didn't have ready access to one of their kits but did have a generator so he took off a spark plug wire and spun the engine with the wire end on the bite while holding onto the frame of the machine.
It seems like today a low powered stun gun kept handy might prove useful in more than one way. If anyone knows more about putting voltage on snakebites I'd like to see what you find out.

[2571]

My police Deparatment realized it had been doing no training since its fficers had left their police academy. Some guys had been on for 20 year, receiving only new training at roll call. City decided to give enitre force of thousands a week of updated training.

H ad to listen to first aid. Some of it was interesting, mostly not. We were more never 4-5 minutes away from a hospital in my city.

Electirc fibrolators came up. Somebody aked if it would be ok to hook jumper cables to a scout car and try to use those in case a de-fibrolator was unavailable, broken, etc. Doctor said he might try it if he were with a victim in the Australian desert, nine mile from Gundigai, but that it was just about a sure way to mess up a victim if done by an amateur.

[Rusty]

So you help them they die or you don't help them and they die.

Flip a coin.

[Bruce]

Rusty,

I heard about the voltage method a few years back and decided to research it. I did find that it exists, and is primarily used in some third world countries. I also found that there was some research being done on dogs with bites and at that time, there was some promise in the method if I recall correctly. I had pretty much forgot about it until your post came up, so I don't know what the final judgement was.

[jeepnik]

So you help them they die or you don't help them and they die.

Flip a coin.

You do what you have to do. If you aren't a medical professional, you are protected, in most states, by "Good Samaritan" laws. I'm sure a lawyer could sue should the injured party die, but do you want to live with just standing there and letting some one die.

In the past, military medical folks were protected from lawsuits if they were trying to save someone. About the only opton as to charge them with dereliction of duty, but that was very uncommon. Not sure how it is today.

[Dave James]

The whole stun gun thing has been proved non effective, it just does more damage, Doc's in the snake bite clinics in the SOuth west say leave it alone,

[FWiedner]

... but do you want to live with just standing there and letting some one die.

Not to get off track, but as I read this the thought that dripped out of my subconscious was:

"It really depends on the someone."

I guess it's time to admit that, at my core, I seem to be a moral relativist because, yeah, there's some folks I've run into...

[adirondakjack]

"What did the doc say?"
"He said yer gonna die."

[jeepnik]

... but do you want to live with just standing there and letting some one die.

Not to get off track, but as I read this the thought that dripped out of my subconscious was:

"It really depends on the someone."

I guess it's time to admit that, at my core, I seem to be a moral relativist because, yeah, there's some folks I've run into...

Okay, other than Obama, would you want to live with it?

[Lawyer Daggit]

Is this procedure recognised by the Red Cross?