First Aid News - May 2007

North American Paramedics to Experiment on Patients Without Consent

Paramedics in USA and Canada are to engage in a controversial experiment of varying emergency first aid CPR treatment to patients, without seeking the consent of the patients involved. They are to select a choice of three different CPR treatments and to assess the effectiveness in a study.

The three options are:
a) 30 seconds of CPR followed by a check of vital signs
b) treatment with a new piece of equipment aimed at improving the blood flow to the heart and brain
c) 3 minutes of CPR, check of vital signs and then a shock

These three options have been debated on for some time but now a concerted study is to take place. The fact that the patients do not know that they are engaging in a study is causing concern. Patients are likely to be unconscious when the life or death decisions are taken and will have no way of expressing their preferences.

There has been talk of people being given the chance to wear wristbands saying that they do not wish to be a guinea pig in experiments like this, but critics of the study have dismissed this as nonsense and pure public relations.