Doesn't this piss you off?

My cardiologist explained that CPR is, as you say, to force the blood around the body until the heart rhythm can be corrected - usually by electric shock. So people apply CPR until the paramedics arrive or until someone appears with a defibrillator.

She also said that you can't restart a flat-lined heart with a defibrillator (those TV dramas that show a patient with a flat line and the doctor shouts for the paddles are nonsense). The defib is used to correct a wayward rhythm, not restart a non-existent rhythm.

[EDIT] However, according to Wikipedia, CPR is used (together with drugs) in hospitals when the heart has stopped.

I did look into this many moons ago, Dave but I've forgotten some of it. The primary purpose of CPR is as your cardiologist has said (he's the expert, I'm absolutely not) is to get blood moving around the body.

In asystole (no shockable rhythm) I think they do beat the hell out of the chest and pummel it (CPR?) to try to get the heart to start but I also believe they even cut the chest open and stick their hands in to mechanically massage it. Jeepers what a procedure to have to endure.

I did look into this many moons ago, Dave but I've forgotten some of it. The primary purpose of CPR is as your cardiologist has said (he's the expert, I'm absolutely not) is to get blood moving around the body.

In asystole (no shockable rhythm) I think they do beat the hell out of the chest and pummel it (CPR?) to try to get the heart to start but I also believe they even cut the chest open and stick their hands in to mechanically massage it. Jeepers what a procedure to have to endure.

Indeed, I was only repeating what she (my cardiologist) told me. She was also pretty dismissive about attempts to restart a flat-lined heart (asystole) - even in ideal hospital conditions. She said this was mostly a waste of time but A&E doctors will try everything though success is extremely rare. 

I remember thinking, when she told me that, please don't bother if I'm ever in your care and my heart stops ... I'll probably be looking on and wanting to move on anyway.

By the way, here is Parnia talking in person (some years ago) about this very subject. This is a short clip but the whole debate is also available on YouTube.

Indeed, I was only repeating what she (my cardiologist) told me. She was also pretty dismissive about attempts to restart a flat-lined heart (asystole) - even in ideal hospital conditions. She said this was mostly a waste of time but A&E doctors will try everything though success is extremely rare. 

I remember thinking, when she told me that, please don't bother if I'm ever in your care and my heart stops ... I'll probably be looking on and wanting to move on anyway.

Interesting, Dave. There was an NDE case in Sabom's book, Recollections of Death in which a person had to endure immediate open heart emergency surgery without anaesthesia. He went unconscious with the shock of it and reportedly left his body which he described as the most pleasant feeling he had ever had or something like that, maybe of a greater magnitude than just a pleasant feeling, can't remember exactly.

I wish Sam Parnia would take the time to correct the near constant misquoting of him on the net.

You guys think this is bad, check out this selection within the hallucination section from the introductory psychology textbook called "Exploring Psychology" used in college...

[Ninshub]

I'm not seeing how this misquotes Parnia. The text seems to be saying that the sensations of hallucinations are similar to those of near-death experiences, and then a brief statement of what NDEs are. However I guess putting those book references at the end of that long sentence is bad writing - I'm thinking they only mean to refer to what the NDE is (i.e. an altered state of consciousness experience by 10 to 15% bla bla bla), and not that these authors are saying the NDE sensations are "strikingly similar" to those in classic hallucinations. The sentence should probably have been broken in two.

I'm not seeing how this misquotes Parnia. The text seems to be saying that the sensations of hallucinations are similar to those of near-death experiences, and then a brief statement of what NDEs are. However I guess putting those book references at the end of that long sentence is bad writing - I'm thinking they only mean to refer to what the NDE is (i.e. an altered state of consciousness experience by 10 to 15% bla bla bla), and not that these authors are saying the NDE sensations are "strikingly similar" to those in classic hallucinations. The sentence should probably have been broken in two.

Yes, agreed. The sentence is somewhat misleading in that it conflates the "strikingly similar" assertion with the cited research when Parnia, Greyson, etc. would certainly take issue with that assertion.

[Ninshub]

On the other hand, Laci is obviously a CIA disinfo agent.

Yes, agreed. The sentence is somewhat misleading in that it conflates the "strikingly similar" assertion with the cited research when Parnia, Greyson, etc. would certainly take issue with that assertion.

It was more that they use Churchland as the last word in a section with two others who actually disagree with her.

In my opinion it's just a typically biased, badly constructed piece, presenting incorrect information and a bit of additional bullshit from Churchland who as a 'neuroscientist', demonstrates her masterful ability to make a diagnosis about this phenomenon by proposing "neural funny business".

Get that...a person reports the most profound life changing experience of their lives (to Dr Patricia) and are diagnosed as suffering from neural funny business !

This line too is typical ..."It is difficult to resist wondering whether the brain under stress manufactures the near death experience"

Is it actually difficult to resist wondering if that is really the case, though ? Hardly, if you look properly at the research. Dr Ernst Rodin never came across a report from an epileptic seizure that resembled an NDE.

"The hallmarks and nuclear components of NDEs are a sensation of peace or even bliss,
the knowledge of having died, and, as a result, being no longer limited
by the physical body. In spite of having seen hundreds of patients with
temporal lobe seizures during three decades of professional life, I have
never come across that symptomatology as part of a seizure."

https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j&...MSe_XW-lEc

And Sam Parnia doesn't research people who's brains are merely under stress, his research candidates were clinically dead.