GAS RESPIRATORS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23273, 16 February 1939, Page 12

GAS RESPIRATORS

CITY AMBULANCES LATEST SCIENTIFIC METHObs NEW EQUIPMENT ORDERED USE IN CASES OF. COLLAPSE In keeping with its policy of remain, ing abreast of modern developments the St. John Ambulance Association aii Auckland has on order a ; number 0 f carbon-dioxide pocket respirator units to be used on all the ambulances. Thesa units will be similar to those featured in the Hebald yesterday by the Sydney correspondent, who told of a r*. markablo recovery made by an elderly woman who collapsed during the heat* wave. She was believed dead, but ambulance men, using the new respirators and artificial respiration, revived her. The units with which the Auckland ambulances are to be equipped are of the sparklet type, the gas being stored in small cylinders, similar to those used in aerated watc-r syphons.

Several of these respirators are already in use by surf clubs in various parts of the Dominion. They consist o£ a metal tube about eight inches long with a jet at the side and near tha top, the whole surmounted with a handle. When this handle is screwed down, its lower end, which is pointed pierces the thin metal seal and releases the carbon-dioxide gas, which is applied to the patient's mouth.

The gas stimulates the respiratory organs. The treatment is carried out in conjunction with artificial respiration, with which every- ambulance driver is familiar. These raethods are applied to those apparently drowned, gas victims, those who have been subjected to electric shocks, and most forms of collapse. It is easily administered.

•"It is a new departure," said Mr, S. E. Langstone, secretary-manager to the St. John Ambulance Association yesterday. "I am. hopeful that we shall be able to procure also the complementary oxygen apparatus, which completes the work that the stimulating gas has begun. It will add greatly to the efficiency of the ambulance unit in this city."