I could understand it...

[ffutures]

...when Angel thought he couldn't give Buffy artificial respiration because he was dead, despite the fact that he could talk and obviously inhaled to do so, because he was essentially an ignorant 18th century idiot.

Owen Harper is a 21st century doctor...

Words fail me.

Comments

[paratti.livejournal.com]

Isn't there some need for carbon dioxide in the exhaled breath that triggers the required response or something.

Has really distant memories of this as an explaination for Angel's not even trying.

[secondsilk.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure that he shouldn't have tried, but even if he had it wouldn't have worked.

People breathe to expel excess carbon dioxide, and his breath would have been the same chemical composition as the air in the cave already, so it would not have triggered Buffy's breathing.

The same is possibly true of Owen, but I would have thought Doctor-ly instinct would have over ridden that. (What episode are we talking about?)

[vitruvian23.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure that he shouldn't have tried, but even if he had it wouldn't have worked. People breathe to expel excess carbon dioxide, and his breath would have been the same chemical composition as the air in the cave already, so it would not have triggered Buffy's breathing.

Nope, not so. CPR breathing is intended to get oxygen into the lungs, the CO2 is a necessary evil and doesn't really serve as a trigger.

[secondsilk.livejournal.com]

Ah. That's cool. I will have to remember. It certainly makes more sense, it's just harder to use as retcon.

Excess carbon dioxide is the trigger for breathing normally, I thought, rather than too little oxygen. I remember an interview with a guy who'd almost died because he'd inhaled too much helium. He was suffocating because he had too little oxygen, but had no desire to breathe - in fact, the first few breaths he forced himself to take were painful.

[parakkum.livejournal.com]

Generally with rescue breathing and CPR as well, the point is simply to ensure adequate perfusion of the person's system with oxygen until someone with proper medical equipment arrives. Despite the inherent drama of "Live, damn it, live!" and bringing someone back to life with some breaths and a good couple pushes at their chest, most of the time CPR just keeps them not-brain-dead long enough for someone to get there with a defibrillator (if they've gone into ventricular fibrillation) or with drugs and then maybe a defibrillator afterward (if their heart has actually stopped beating).

But it's not so dramatic to have Xander give CPR for half an hour while Angel runs to call 911, only to find that Buffy can't be resuscitated anyway.

(And yeah, I always read the "I have no breath" as some kind of statement about how the metaphysics of the Buffyverse work.)

[dsample.livejournal.com]

The CO2 being required for artificial resperiation is a myth. Generally in a hospital, or a properly equipped medic, they use a mechanical respirator, with pure oxygen.

Some current thinking on CPR is that the breathing part isn't even necessary, and may actually be counterproductive. Just pressing on the victim's chest moves enough air in and out of the lungs to oxygenate the blood.