© 2006 All Rights Reserved. Do not distribute or repurpose this work without written permission from the copyright holder(s).
Printed from https://www.damninteresting.com/retired/the-popsicle-doctor/
This article is marked as 'retired'. The information here may be out of date, incomplete, and/or incorrect.
In medicine, as in many other endeavors, correctly assessing the problem is the biggest part of finding the solution. If you can diagnose the patient correctly, you’re halfway to a solution. If you can’t, you’re whistling in the dark.
Such was the case in Rochester, New York at the 1985 Lilac 10K. Fairly early on among the finishers, a runner crossed the finish line, and promptly collapsed, falling forward onto his face. The paramedics on the scene, believing him to have tripped, and thinking his unresponsiveness was due to facial trauma, loaded him into the ambulance and took him to the local emergency room.
But shortly after the ambulance left, another runner crossed the finish line and collapsed.
Fortunately for the second runner, a doctor had just finished the race as well. Dr. Schiffer recognized the symptoms immediately as heat stroke. Heat stroke, which can be deadly, is caused by an extreme rise in body temperature. It is common following high exertion in hot conditions, but is rare in Rochester, where the local joke is “Ten months of winter, and two months of bad skiing weather.” Unfortunately for the runners, the day of the marathon was unseasonably warm and muggy, something the local runners were not acclimated to.
Dr. Schiffer recognized the ailment, but the ambulance and medical equipment were gone with the first runner. So the ex-marine commandeered a Popsicle-cart that was selling to the bystanders and packed the prostrate runner in Popsicles. This successfully lowered the man’s temperature, and prevented possible disaster. A third stricken runner, a woman, collapsed shortly thereafter, and was again treated by Dr. Schiffer using his improvised methods.
Meanwhile the first runner fared far less well. The emergency room personnel, continuing on the presumption of trauma, ran their patient through a CAT-scan checking for head injuries, and then sent him up to the ICU. By the time the emergency room intern arrived on the scene and suggested taking the man’s temperature, it was too late, and the patient died shortly thereafter. Local papers blamed the hapless intern, and he ended up leaving the internship program.
Oddly enough, this is not the only time Popsicles have been used for emergency treatment for heat stroke. In his book Zoo Vets, David Taylor, DVM relates an incident involving a whale he was escorting. The transport truck did not have adequate cooling, and the whale was overheating rapidly under its thick insulating blubber. Unable to find a sufficient quantity of ice, the vet resorted to frozen treats, and the whale arrived at its destination swimming in an odd sea of juice with floating sticks, but healthy and whole.
Which goes to show, when emergency manuals caution that Popsicles are not adequate treatment for heat-related ailments, they simply aren’t thinking of them in the right way.
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Odd knowledge like this that can save lives needs to be more widely known.
Here’s my tidbit contribution: If you ever get poisoned eating Fugu (blowfish) at one of those rare sushi bars that serve it, have a designated non-fugu eating person keep doing CPR on you; the poison only paralyzes you temporarily. People who die of fugu poisoning die of suffocation and lack of oxygen to the brain because of the temporary paralysis of the diaphram and heart, but they remain conscious as they slip away trapped in a body they cannot move. If you keep doing CPR on the person, the poison will eventually wear off (though how long that takes is a matter of dosage and body mass; upt to several hours). If you give up, your fugu-ingesting friend would have died an unnecessary death.
Berkana said: “Odd knowledge like this that can save lives needs to be more widely known.
Here’s my tidbit contribution: If you ever get poisoned eating Fugu (blowfish) at one of those rare sushi bars that serve it, have a designated non-fugu eating person keep doing CPR on you; the poison only paralyzes you temporarily. People who die of fugu poisoning die of suffocation and lack of oxygen to the brain because of the temporary paralysis of the diaphram and heart, but they remain conscious as they slip away trapped in a body they cannot move. If you keep doing CPR on the person, the poison will eventually wear off (though how long that takes is a matter of dosage and body mass; upt to several hours). If you give up, your fugu-ingesting friend would have died an unnecessary death.”
My advice : never go in a sushi bar!
Or just don’t order fugu.
A man who thinks on his feet. oh no, he fell too…a man who thinks of others…no- too rare…A Man Who Thinks.
Sounds like I’d actually want that “hapless intern” as my doctor if I ever collapsed with heatstroke. So why did he take all the blame, particularly if he just arrived on the scene when it was already too late? Why didn’t his hospital defend him? There are too many unanswered questions, and now I feel just awful for the poor guy. Or at least I think I should feel that way. Could you please clarify or maybe post links to your sources?
I don’t know what ultimately became of the intern, but there’s no doubt he was done an enormous disservice. I know of him through conversation with Dr. Schiffer and what you see here is most of my information about him. More could probably be found in the archives of the Democrat & Chronicle, which was the major Rochester paper covering the event.
Of course I’ve latched onto a tragedy in an otherwise cute and charming tale of heroism…. I definitely will check out those archives. Thanks Cynthia!
Hello,
I know it has been a while since the last post was entered before this one but as a first-time reader of this article I am also interested to know what might have become of the “hapless Intern”. If anyone here has discovered more related information I would be happy to know. Thanks.
Sincerely,
CharlesRoland
sternedwards@aol.com
Berkana said: “Odd knowledge like this that can save lives needs to be more widely known.
Here’s my tidbit contribution: If you ever get poisoned eating Fugu (blowfish) at one of those rare sushi bars that serve it, have a designated non-fugu eating person keep doing CPR on you; the poison only paralyzes you temporarily. People who die of fugu poisoning die of suffocation and lack of oxygen to the brain because of the temporary paralysis of the diaphram and heart, but they remain conscious as they slip away trapped in a body they cannot move. If you keep doing CPR on the person, the poison will eventually wear off (though how long that takes is a matter of dosage and body mass; upt to several hours). If you give up, your fugu-ingesting friend would have died an unnecessary death.”
If ever i feel like eating fugu, i’ll be sure to have a Beautiful Date to give the instructions of, “give me CPR until i wake up”