Melody is correct. She explains “Even highly skilled and experienced paramedics and nurses have difficulty gaining IV access on patients without pressure.” From what I hear, this is true in many patients with little or no blood pressure. The benefits of having a medically skilled individual are paramount.
In researching past cases from the Alcor newsletters I found an article written by Charles Platt about patient A-1234.
http://www.alcor.org/Library/html/alcornews011.html
Platt writes: “By 10 AM our team members were at the nursing home and I asked Larry Johnson to give instructions via the phone to Todd Huffman regarding medications. (Larry had considered flying to Los Angeles himself, but clearly he would have been unable to get there in time.) Larry described to Todd the technique for putting the patient in the Trendeleburg position, which causes the external jugular veins to become distended. This enabled Todd to place an IV line. It was then relatively easy to push the various medications that we use to mitigate ischemic injury.”
“Todd Huffman can take much of the credit for this by having managed to place the IV and administer heparin and streptokinase, in response to the valuable instructions from Larry Johnson.”
What would have happened if Alcor did not have Johnson on hand to verbally walk Huffman a difficult procedure? Could SA’s Golf Pro have been successful or would he have bogied on the ninth hole? Say what you will but you cannot substitute the skill of a professionally trained individual.
DR