After one man went into cardiac arrest and his family successfully performed CPR on him with a toilet plunger, Advanced Circulator Systems developed the ResQPump. It’s a machine that regulates chest compressions and airflow during the resuscitation process:

According to a study published in The Lancet this winter, the ResQPump, which is used for chest compressions, and the ResQPOD, which prevents too much air from entering the lungs during CPR, could increase certain cardiac-arrest victims’ chances of survival by 50 percent.

The ResQPump works like a toilet plunger, but while decompressing it can draw air back into the lungs. The ResQPOD, cleared by the FDA in 2003, regulates airflow by creating suction in the chest, which draws blood up into the brain.

Link | Photo: Advanced Circulatory Systems

Previously: CPR Certification at Home with the Nintendo Wii

Vanuchi and an older dog, Pumbaa, had gone out on the deck of the Deno home. Moments later…

Deno was inside getting dinner ready when Pumbaa got her attention.

She ran to the deck, where she saw Vanuchi’s leash tangled around the grill, then disappear over the edge.

At the other end, the 5-month-old French bulldog dangled lifeless in his collar.

Check out the feel-good story, and the lesson learned (harness, not choke collar).

Link | via The Obscure Store and Reading Room
(Photo: Matt Perenchio)

Possums are prone to play dead, especially when threatened. Their eyes glaze over, their teeth are bared, and they secrete a rank stench from their glands.
But the possum lying along the Colonel Drake Highway on Thursday was doing none of that, troopers said. It was long-dead certified roadkill.
And Donald Wolfe was intent on bringing it back to life, troopers said. Trooper Jamie Levier of the Punxsutawney barracks said witnesses saw Wolfe, 55, locking lips with the lifeless marsupial about 3 p.m. in a remote area about 80 miles northeast of Pittsburgh.

Link (Photo not the possum in question)

The American Heart Association is funding a student project to develop a CPR certification program that uses the Nintendo Wii:

A biomedical engineering professor at the University of Alabama at Birmingham envisioned a program for home computers that could sync via wireless with the Wii remote, and train users on proper resuscitation of people who have suffered cardiac arrest. The students hope to make the program available for download this fall, free of charge, on the American Heart Association’s website.

Link