FDA clears Google watch feature to call 911 if you flatline The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has given the nod to the Loss of Pulse Detection feature of the Pixel Watch 3. The clearance means that US wearers of the Google smartwatch will be notified if death is imminent. The feature will roll out from the end of March. Snark aside, Loss of Pulse Detection can automatically …
No, all bills will automatically be forwarded to next of kin and register their newly acquired debts to all banks and other relevant institutions. They will also, very helpfully, forward a "free" list of lawyers that specialize in death-by-watch and death-by-fail-to-call-help-but-it-was-not-our-problem-anyway.
Does there need to be a credit card lodged with google pay to cover the Ambulance and med technicians $400,000 bill ?
Good point. I know taking a ride in an ambulance can be eyewateringly expensive, but are there call-out fees for false alarms, and if so, who would be liable?
(Think it's a pretty safe bet to assume it won't be AlphaGoo, at least maybe not until some lawsuits)
Tip for former colonials and anyone unfortunate enough to visit the curs'ed lands.
You aren't liable for costs of calling an ambulance if you don't go. Or for calling an ambulance for somebody else and they turn out to be fine and not need it.
So please don't not call an ambulance for yourself or someone because of the cost.
IANAL etc, and the rule of law has deserted these lands - so.....
"Tip for former colonials and anyone unfortunate enough to visit the curs'ed lands.
You aren't liable for costs of calling an ambulance if you don't go. Or for calling an ambulance for somebody else and they turn out to be fine and not need it.
So please don't not call an ambulance for yourself or someone because of the cost.”
As a ‘right-pondian’, I’m genuinely interested, how does it work on your side? For example, a couple of months ago my elderly mother was showing real signs of distress (turned out to be a runaway infection - she’s fine now), I could call an ambulance (and they turned up in twenty minutes, the paramedics assessed her and took her off and admitted her to hospital. Now it might not have been the fastest response or even the best level of care in the world, but at no point did I need to stop and think about the cost. It would all be free, well no, not free we have all paid a contribution in taxes over the years.
Now I ask this question because there is a general belief over here, that if you fall sick in the US and don't have insurance, then you are just left to die! Which seems unlikely to me, I’ve seen on the news, because of what your new President, is doing to social security, references to Medicare and Medicaid; how does it work?
Well, speaking as a left-pondian currently based in Canada - healthcare is generally free - but ambulance rides are not !
My partner tripped over a kerb and hit her head on a shop window, cutting it open. She bled profusely, so one of the people who had stopped to help her called an ambulance. She ended up in hospital and needed a few stiches. Discharged same day, nothing to pay.
Was surprised to receive a bill from the ambulance service (a public body) a few months later for $250. Paid it, and was able to claim back roughly half through our employment extended medical cover.
Total distance from incident to Emergency Room - 21Km (150,000 linguine according El Reg standards converter). Roughly 5 times the cost of the same journey in an Uber, but without the fascinating life stories.
I'm in the Midwest. A couple of years ago I temporarily lost the sight in one eye while playing with my toddler - most disconcerting. I was rushed to hospital with the ambulance tech doing little more than keep talking to me for the hour long journey (I live in the middle of nowhere). I got a bill for $8,400 (along with a $2000 bill for an MRI). I was panicking about the cost a little but my insurance did eventually cover it. If I hadn't had insurance then they would still have taken me and I would have been stuck with the bill. Some religiously run hospitals have charitable donations that cover the costs for those who can't pay. Most hospitals do not.
Related: My son was ill with a stomach bug, at a different time, and needed an anti-emetic. Even with insurance the charge for the meds would have been $165. At the time that was a lot so I took the option to just get a half bottle for just over half the price - I could buy another bottle later if needed. Fortunately, he didn't even need the whole of the one we did get. That $90 was with insurance. We could pay it but anyone who couldn't would be out of luck. That's for a sick kid.
I have a medication that, without insurance, costs $1,500 a month. My insurance and my employer cover that. I wouldn't be able to pay it. There are cheaper, much less effective, alternatives. If I didn't have the insurance then I would have to go with one of those with increased risks to my well-being.
So yes, people are left to die for being short of cash but there are some safeguards.
Medicare is federal healthcare for people over 65, some disabled people under 65 and people with end stage renal failure (I don't know why that one condition specifically). Medicaid is for low income people in certain categories such as childen or pregant women. Someone is considered low income if they earn less than about $1,500 a month. A healthy, non-pregnant adult would not qualify, even if they earned less than the low-income level. They are the ones who have to choose whether to call an ambulance or not and who will be hit with massive bills.
BTW: my problem turned out to be a detached retina. All fixed now. I hope your Mom continues to be well.
>Now I ask this question because there is a general belief over here, that if you fall sick in the US and don't have insurance, then you are just left to die!
Not quite. The hospital is required to "stabilise you" - but that means they will provide the minimum of emergency treatment then go after you for any money they can get.
But this doesn't cover drugs or treatment, so 'working but poor' people do die from being able to afford eg. insulin.
But to pay for this 'free' treatment they overcharge everyone else, so if you don't have insurance or the insurance doesn't cover you for some bizarre admin reasons you will get the famous $$$$$ bill.
Even if the insurance does cover you - you will get random bills for random amounts for years later.
In the land of right pondians, you can try to call an ambulance but if you’re not assessed as serious (ie you’re going to imminently pop your clogs) you can wait 4-6 hours or in some documented cases a lot longer. If you’re lucky a fast response advanced paramedic will rock up to see how bad you really are. It’s an endemic problem just now caused by lack of hospital beds, with the hospital bed managers donning their Arthur Daley sheepskin coats and doing deals with wards to squeeze people in, bless them
You need a defibrillator* for that. Or a pacemaker. The former is a bit bulky, the latter means you've already had a heart attack and the pace maker is there in case it happens again.
*A Defibrillator stuns the heart to stop fibrillation, which is what most heart attacks involve. The heart is fluttering ineffectively (fibrillation) and needs the shock to reset it.
AICDs (automatic implantable cardiac defibrillators) are not much bulkier than conventional pacemakers. The only reason they have to be bigger is so their battery has enough capacity to keep charging the defib capacitor as often as necessary to keep you going until you can get to a human doctor. It's usually a good idea not to have to change the impulse generator, even if it has had to do its job, and then stopped zapping you from the inside.
First hand accounts* say the sensation is like being shoved in the chest, firmly but not distressingly. That's as opposed to external DCR, which often results in chest wall muscle pain.
Intracardiac defibrillation can work with 5-10J discharges. Transthoracic defib for pulseless arrhythmias should be 150-200J (2-4J/kg). All that extra energy goes somewhere, usually into pectoral and intercostal muscles. And delivering all that extra energy requires a box bigger than a laptop, as opposed to one half the size of the palm of your hand.
(*From someone whose AICD has just gone off repeatedly)
I can't tell you how being zapped by a defibrillator feels in the moment (I was anesthetized for both incidents) but there was definitely an ache in my chest for a few hours afterwards.
VFib is not something I ever want to experience again.
The ache took a back seat to the pain from the emergency abdominal surgery.
Morphine is great at making you lose track of the passage of time, but did nothing for my pain.
Now I've not heard of AICD's before: Perhaps those could link to the smart watch to make a call if it activates.
Thankfully I've never had to use a Defib for real - and never been on the receiving end of one - just done the training over many, many years (yes, been doing first aid since I was a nipper, and learned how to use AED's when they became available).
One thing I do know is the automated kit only really works for the common fibrillation pattern: The Emergency Ambulance Crew I know have kit that can detect a range of rhythms and know which ones they can also shock. But again - never witnessed it and really hope people don't need that kind of intervention.
As to the size of an AED: The battery is certainly the bulky bit. And the weighty bit. My shoulder can attest to that one... And yes, the excess charge passes through the muscles between the pads, and down through the ground, too. It's why we have to make sure people are stood away from the person being shocked 'cause we don't want that shock going into someone else, thanks. Don't want two people down with heart problems...
Heart attacks are plumbing issues. Cardiac arrests are electrical issues.
Defibrillators stop fibrillation which is an electrical issue, not a heart attack.
Heart attacks tend to be slow onset and often painful; cardiac arrests happen without the patient realising (because they go unconscious)
(icon: not pressing in the right place for CPR)
Am usually more concerned about what I need to do to help the person, but yes, cardiac arrest is more what we'd be shocking, but to most people, it's all a heart issue hence have a bad habit of referring to all of it as a 'heart attack'. But in my defence: not a doctor so can't diagnose: My focus is treating the person for what's wrong, and for that I go by signs and symptoms rather than risk the wrong term being used.
Oh bother.
I hope it's not going to do the literal rollercoaster thing that the Apple Watch did, where it called EMS to report a crash when people rode a coaster.
If it means I need to dis-arm (Hah, pun!) my watch before I hop in the shower, then it could be very interesting indeed...
All joking aside, if rolled out properly, this could be a good thing for elderly or those with a heart condition, as a tertiary layer of check.
I hope it's not going to do the literal rollercoaster thing that the Apple Watch did, where it called EMS to report a crash when people rode a coaster.
Or off-roading. Or on-roading and hitting a succession of potholes. But with the state of US roads it can be hard to tell the difference sometimes. I did go off-roading with a left-pondian friend who's phone and watch seemed pretty convinced we'd been in an accident, and no amount of swearing at it would get them to shut up.
(gadgets, not friend I should add..)
I do wonder about its utility: if you're with someone when you have the heart attack, you don't need your watch to call, since the people around can both provide immediate first aid and call for medical assistance. On the other hand, if you're on your own, and your heart has stopped and you're not moving or responsive, then basically, you ain't getting up no matter how many ambulances are called.
Just think, they could feed the details into google maps and you could have a real time overlay of people dropping dead in the local area. The routing could even take this into account and offer to avoid areas where people are dying, great for an ongoing terrorist attack. This is getting dark....
For better or worse, I use Facebook Messenger to keep in touch with a number of friends. Years ago when my mother became terminally ill with cancer I was discussing it with friends on Messenger and almost straight away I started to see adverts for funeral directors and will-writing services appearing on my FB feed.
I know full well that FB mine my data to serve me adverts, as proven by the stream of adverts I've seen over the years for various technological and other hobby-related goods...but somehow it felt like the death-related ones had kind of crossed a line somehow
Parasitic capitalism does not draw a distinction between the personal and commercial. I would suggest that all those who are dismayed by the worsening current dystopia to avoid all social media platforms, if possible. Facebook is just another blatantly invasive platform. Oh, and imho, A.I. as currently touted is just the next Trojan Horse for centralized control by oligarchy.
This week I have:
1. written a document about how government employees should not tell anyone what they do
2. encrypted all my documents
3. written instructions to my colleagues to encrypt their documents
4. written instructions to my colleagues on how to tell multi-billionaires to fuck off
5. told a multi-billionaire to fuck off.
My job is done.
In my case, the heart stopped in hospital, whilst connected to ECG/EKG, which showed the flatlining.
Yes, when the heart decides to stop, it can be very sudden. I did get a fainting feeling once the pulse and blood pressure dropped, but lost consciousness very quickly.
If this had happened outside of hospital, without anyone at hand to begin resuscitation, an ambulance would have arrived too late
Dead is irreversibly lost circulation to the brain. Flatline on the ECG can be anything from a sinus pause to asystole, which might just need pacing (which can be done without an implanted pacemaker, BTW). If someone's doing CPR on you, you're not necessarily dead.
As I remember from cardiology lectures, the only difference between fainting and being dead is that, after you faint, you get up again.
The difference between in- and out-of-hospital cardiac arrest morbidity and mortality is so significant, the only thing that is going to help you in a flatline situation is turning out-of-hospital into in-hospital as quickly as possible.
Learn CPR.
Unless the ambulance is just down the street, but one exception would be if you're outside when it is cold. You can survive for quite a while with a stopped heart if your body temperature is low enough. Of course the kind of people most likely to die from exposure (homeless, mentally ill, elderly with dementia) aren't like to wear a smartwatch...
How long without a pulse before you can be considered dead?
I went into VFib twice during major surgery, no detectable pulse, and was shocked back.
Does that mean I died twice?
Just curious, because if I died and came back that means I have 2 birthdays, so birthday cake twice a year!
So that instead of 'user has left the chat room', it posts 'user has kicked the bucket, snuffed it, joined the choir invisible', deletes your accounts and the dodgy pron on your PC, cancels your library card and Amazon chocolate subscriptions, plays the 'Star Wars' theme as loud as it can, and initiates a factory reset. Because one should exit with some panache.
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