Cardiovascular Life Support

The phased response approach includes seven steps to guide resource use, communication, and problem solving.

1. Anticipation-

   1. announce age, illness, medical history, events leading up

   2. assign team roles

   3. gather equipment

   4. go to site of emergency or standby

2. Entry

   1. transfer

   2. assess, vitals, positioning for interventions

   3. one team member obtains info

3. Resuscitation

4. Maintenance

   1. stabilizing vitals

   2. predicting potential problems

   3. assessment

   4. labs

   5. transfer prep

5. Family notification

6. Debrief

Therapeutic hypothermia is started after a cardiac event to protect the brain from injury. It is a labor-intensive protocol requiring constant vitals monitoring and assessment. There are four phases:

1. Cooling to 33-36 degree Celsius within four hours of resuscitation

2. Maintenance for 24 hours

3. Rewarming to 36.5 Celsius over seven hours at a rate of 0.25 degree increase per hour

4. Normothermia at 36.5 Celsius for 48 hours

The artic sun device is ideal for this protocol. Standard cooling blankets and ice packs may also be used. [Reference]