With the closest medical consultants some 250 miles and a spaceship trip away, astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS) must be properly educated in relation to performing first support and different necessary medical therapies.

But with microgravity making circumstances on the station a bit completely different to these down on terra firma, a number of the response strategies must be tailored to ensure that them to be efficient.

Take cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), a life-saving process that’s administered when somebody’s coronary heart stops beating. As most individuals are conscious, it entails a sequence of chest compressions to maintain the particular person’s blood circulating in order that it continues oxygenating the organs, particularly the mind, thereby stopping injury.

Current ISS inhabitant Samantha Cristoforetti not too long ago shared a video along with her a million Twitter followers that gives some perception into how CPR is run in house.

Practising CPR in Space ⛑ #MissionMinerva #CPR #LifeInSpace@esa @esaspaceflight @Space_Station pic.twitter.com/qfEcqpCMU6

— Samantha Cristoforetti (@AstroSamantha) September 2, 2022

To carry out chest compressions on Earth, we use our physique weight to use strain on the higher physique. But in house the absence of gravity makes it exhausting to take action, because the compression process would trigger the astronaut to push themselves away from the particular person they’re attempting to avoid wasting.

Cristoforetti, who arrived on the orbiting outpost in April for a six-month keep, reveals a few methods to get round this.

The first seems to be the Italian astronaut’s personal distinctive methodology — by transferring to an the other way up place and inserting her ft on the floor of the station to provide her the flexibility to push down. Of course, the astronaut must be a sure top for this methodology to work.

The second methodology makes use of a strap on the aspect of the station’s CPR mattress. The particular person conducting CPR locations the belt round their physique to remain securely in place to allow them to successfully apply strain.

There are additionally not less than three different methods to carry out CPR in microgravity circumstances. The Evetts-Russomano methodology, for instance, entails the responder positioning their legs in a method that enables their ankles to interlock within the middle of the affected person’s again in order that they generate power on their chest for the compressions with out pushing themselves away.

There’s additionally the reverse bearhug approach the place the responder wraps their arms across the affected person from behind to carry out the compressions. Finally, the waist straddle entails the responder sitting astride the affected person, with straps guaranteeing they keep safe.

To take care of a state of affairs corresponding to cardiac arrest, the ISS can be outfitted with an automatic exterior defibrillator that makes use of electrical shocks to return an individual’s coronary heart rhythm to its regular state.

To date, neither CPR nor AED therapy have had for use on the International Space Station. However, with long-duration missions to the moon and Mars on the playing cards, and a rise in civilian orbital flights leading to extra folks of assorted age and health heading to house, there’s an rising likelihood of a medical emergency occurring removed from Earth.

With that in thoughts, NASA and its companions will proceed to make sure that emergency medical coaching is a significant a part of an astronaut’s coaching.

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