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I couldn’t help but include this theory I have about saving lives. You see,
the rest of the site may save you money, but this may save your life, or the
life of your child or a friend. If you remember only one detail from this
entire site, I hope this is it. As with all my writing, your comments and
questions are most welcome. If you ever employ this technique, please call me
and let me know that my life’s work has been successful in saving a human life.
Thank you. For the longer version of this technique, along with its history,
please see the book How To Market a Product for Under $500. Thanks. Theory by
Jeffrey Dobkin • © 1986, 1993, 1997, 2001
A Technique For Delaying Brain Death in Heart Attack Victims
While current medical methods cannot entirely prevent heart
attacks, there is an emergency procedure that can save lives. A simple
technique can reduce or delay the possibility of brain damage and brain death to
a heart attack victim for up to an hour—or more.
If this procedure saves
one life, it is fully worth all the time and effort I have spent in research.
The Technique seeks to prevent or delay the irreversible brain damage
thought to occur when no oxygen reaches the brain for four minutes.1 It is used
as a time-buying procedure to save the lives of heart attack victims and victims
of suffocation, drowning, respiratory failure, and drug overdose. Perhaps it
will even help SIDS (crib death) or stroke victims until proper medical
equipment and personnel are summoned and arrive.
The Technique can be
applied by a child or may be self-administered in almost any home. It takes
less than 30 seconds to initiate and the results are as immediate.2 It works on
both conscious and unconscious victims. It can be explained on the phone in
under a minute.
Almost everyone has heard of a boy drowning in cold
water—then, after half an hour of submersion, being resuscitated with no ill
effects and no brain damage. The Canadian Medical Association Journal
documented such a drowning: After half an hour of complete submersion, a boy was
rescued from the icy waters where he fell.3 He was resuscitated and, with
proper medical treatment, had no lasting side effects. There was no cerebral
damage, although his brain received no oxygen for over half an hour.
Research has provided additional case study after case study of extended
cold water submersion with no brain damage to resuscitated victims. Article
after article, story after story, of people deprived of oxygen for up to an
hour—with no ill effects or brain damage. What is it that protects the brain
from damage in cases of oxygen deprivation over the four-minute limit? And can
this be applied as a lifesaving technique to heart attack victims?
In all
vertebrates, there is an automatic reflex called the Mammalian Diving Reflex.
It occurs naturally as a life-preserving mechanism during cold water
submersion. More commonly called the “Diving Reflex,” it is a protective
oxygen-conserving reflex to keep brain and body alive during submergence and
possible drowning in cold water. The body prepares itself to sustain life. It
is a totally natural protective mechanism serving Homo sapiens, originating
from hundreds of thousands of years of evolvement.
Natural engagement of
the diving reflex is what has enabled drowning victims to be revived
successfully after cold water submersion for as long as an hour, with few or no
ill effects. The Technique seeks to trigger this reflex in a crisis. The
Technique may never replace CPR. The purpose of this article is not to compete
with CPR, but to help sustain the life of the hundreds of thousands of victims
of heart attacks or suffocation, thrust into a life-and-death situation, who may
not be near people trained in CPR.
If you are not skilled in CPR, and you
live in the country where an ambulance is 20 minutes away, and someone close to
you has a heart attack—the options are frightening. Without the initiation of
the Technique, a person whose heart stops has only four minutes until
irreversible brain damage occurs. After you call for help, you can watch. If
you think this is a horrifying alternative, I couldn’t agree more. Or you can
try this Technique.
The Technique may work to save lives in conjunction
with CPR. There is also the possibility it may not work at all; this is, after
all, a theory. But the fact that it just may work makes it worth closer study.
When there is no other immediate remedy, this may be put into practice in an
emergency. What would you have your spouse do if you lived in the country and
you had a heart attack?
“The Technique for Delaying Brain Damage” is simple
and easy to initiate. In natural surroundings, the diving reflex occurs when a
mammal falls into water 58 degrees Fahrenheit—the mean temperature of the waters
of the world—or colder. But this reflex may also be triggered by only a facial
immersion in cold water (58 degrees or colder). The Technique is to apply cold
water, wet towels, or wet ice packs to the victim’s face—especially the eyes—to
trigger the diving reflex in the event of heart or respiratory failure. This
procedure starts the oxygen-conserving mammalian diving reflex. Here is what
happens:
Bradycardia can start in as little as four seconds or can take up
to thirty seconds, depending on what part of the breath cycle the person is in
when cold water is applied to the face. In man, cold water facial immersion
usually induces a 15% to 30% decrease in heart rate from normal resting values.
The reflex is strong enough to override other seemingly vital reflexes; i.e., it
can completely obliterate the tachycardia that accompanies moderately severe
exercise on a bicycle ergometer and can abruptly reduce heart rate from 130140
beats per minute to 80 or less, despite continuation of the exercise.4
Bradycardia is initiated by parasympathetic vagal activity.
Skin and muscle
blood flow decrease through a powerful constriction of peripheral arteries.
Peripheral vaso-constriction brought about by sympathetic activity maintains
blood pressure. At the same time, systemic arterial pressure, especially
diastolic, is increased. This lower heart rate and redistribution of central
blood flow supports more necessary life-preserving organs.
The reflex
triggers anaerobic metabolism, shown by a fall in arterial pH. There is an
increase in concentrations of lactic and other organic acids, and a rise in
blood carbon dioxide and potassium. This indicates that the body’s cells are
using less oxygen.
In a study by Wolf, Schneider and Groover, arterial
oxygen saturation fell very little during immersion when the reflex occured.5
Because arterial oxygen saturation falls very little, the term “oxygen
conserving” is appropriate for the reflex—an animal is enabled to survive
without breathing for a much longer period than its supply of oxygen would
warrant under ordinary circumstances.6
In Diving Reflex experiments,
Charles Richet tied off the tracheae of two groups of ducks, then held one group
under cold water. The ducks held under water lived more than three times as
long as their partners not immersed in cold water.
In further studies of
nerve-cutting experiments, Harold Anderson of Oslo, Norway, documented that the
Diving Reflex, as manifested by slowing of the heart, depended on the integrity
of the ophthalmic branch of the trigeminal nerve. With the nerve intact, a duck
would trigger the diving reflex and survive under water for 20 minutes. When
the ophthalmic branch of the trigeminal nerve was severed (bilaterally),
immersed ducks failed to slow their heart rates when cold water was applied to
their faces and survived only six or seven minutes.7
Accentuation of the
reflex to the greatest degree occurs when the facial immersion in cold water is
accompanied by fear. The more fearful the condition, the stronger the trigger
to bring about the reflex and the greater the chance a strong oxygen-conserving
reflex will take place.
In patients resuscitated by the team of a special
ambulance service run by the Department of Anesthesia at Ulleval Hospital (from
an article entitled “Resuscitation of Drowning Victims”), the most successful
outcome was observed in those with cardiac arrest following drowning.
In an
article in Newsweek, drowning specialist Dr. Martin J. Nemiroff (Michigan
University Medical Center) suggests that the involuntary diving reflex saves
lives of drowning victims by delaying suffocation—by shunting oxygen from
extremities and sending it toward the heart, brain, and lungs—and reduces the
possibility of brain damage and death.8 A photo in the Newsweek article shows
Dr. Nemiroff with Brian Cunningham, who was revived after 38 minutes under
water.
Dr. Nemiroff has successfully revived numerous victims of cold water
drowning who were submerged for 30 minutes or more and were pronounced dead. He
says that what saved the victims was the automatic activation of the Mammalian
Diving Reflex and the coldness of the water.9
It is my conclusion that if
the diving reflex can save the lives of drowning victims by delaying brain
damage, then triggering the reflex should also delay brain damage in heart
attack victims.
A discussion in a Scientific American study of the human
body’s ability to resist drowning states that the Diving Reflex and cold water
reduce the oxygen demand of tissues, extending the period of survival without
external oxygen to as long as one hour. Previously, irreversible brain damage
was thought to occur after four minutes without oxygen.10
The Diving Reflex
is currently used by the medical profession in conversion of paroxysmal atrial
tachycardia.11,12,13 The Technique is to immerse the face of a person in a tub
or basin of water 50 degrees or cooler. Since the technique produces an almost
instant conversion to normal sinus rhythm and is not invasive, the use of the
Diving Reflex is recommended by many authors and cited as a safe, effective
treatment. In one study, nine out of 10 patients converted in 1538 seconds,
with an average of 23 seconds.14 Its use is also the treatment of choice for
converting a supraventricular tachycardia in children and infants, in whom the
Diving Reflex effect is most pronounced.15
In a letter to Mr. Dobkin, Dr.
Linus Pauling surmises there are two ways in which the damage to the brain might
be delayed for some time when the oxygen to the blood is stopped.
“The
brain can tolerate a certain amount of decrease in the partial pressure of
oxygen supplied by the blood. If the circulation of the blood to the brain and
to the tissues continues at its normal rate, the oxygen is used up rather fast,
most of it (75%) by tissues other than the brain. Accordingly the induction of
bradycardia, delaying the rate at which oxygen is brought to the tissues by the
blood, would conserve the supply of oxygen and permit anoxic damage to be
delayed by a considerable amount.
“There is a second way of delaying brain
damage by anoxia. This way is to cool the brain. The biochemical reactions
involved in anoxic damage have a high temperature coefficient, so that cooling
the brain by a few degrees can slow down the rate at which anoxic damage occurs
to perhaps one-tenth of its rate.”16 This letter suggests that ice or cold
water also be applied to the neck, so that the blood is cooled and the brain
itself is cooled in the region in which anoxic damage occurs. I concur with Dr.
Pauling and recommend that after the face is immersed with ice packs or cold
water, cold water be applied to the neck and the base of the hairline at the
back of the head.
After countless hours of research, I am convinced that
the Technique to delay brain damage will save lives. The technique of applying
cold water to the face of conscious or unconscious heart attack or suffocation
victims should be a known lifesaving procedure. It may be used in the event of
any oxygen deprivation to the brain. Its procedure can be explained over the
telephone, self-administered, or applied by a friend or child with no training.
And while it will not stop heart attacks from happening, it will buy precious
time until proper medical equipment and personnel arrive.
The Technique is
quick and easy to apply. It is a time-buying procedure—when time is of the
essence. It is nature’s own way of protecting us—a non-invasive action that can
be initiated immediately by someone with no training. This natural,
life-conserving reflex is common enough to be found in all mammals and powerful
enough to save someone’s life in a traumatic moment.
Further investigation
and clinical evaluation may be necessary, but from the empirical evidence I have
uncovered, I recommend this reflex be initiated in time of emergent need. I hope
this article is a catalyst to spur new research. My reward? I would like my
name assigned to the Technique; after all, Heimlich has his maneuver. My goal?
I hope at least one life is saved.
###
The Dobkin Technique triggers
nature’s own protective oxygen-saving mechanism to save lives. It is the same
reflex that has saved children and adults from drowning even though they were
completely submerged in cold water for up to an hour. Your comments are most
welcome. If you know someone who has been revived from a cold water drowning,
please write to me. Also, if this technique has been used, please let me know
the details. Thank you.
Jeffrey Warren Dobkin • P.O. Box 100 • Merion
Station, PA 19066
Abstract References:
CPR, Diving Reflex, Heart
Attack, Brain Damage, SIDS, Suffocation, Respiratory Failure.
~ Abstract ~
Help for heart attack victims—when no one is around who knows CPR, initiate
“The Dobkin Technique for Delaying Brain Death”: Apply cold water or cold wet
towels (58 degrees or colder) to the face and eyes of victim—leaving nose and
mouth clear to breathe. After this, supplemental help may be to apply
additional cold wet cloths to the base of the back of the head and to the back
of the neck. This is an emergency time-buying procedure to delay brain death by
triggering the Diving Reflex. The Diving Reflex is a natural oxygen-conserving
reflex which can delay the irreversible brain damage thought to occur within
four minutes of oxygen deprivation. Works on conscious and unconscious victims;
may be applied by child or self-administered; technique may be described over
the phone. Works in under 30 seconds. Works in victims of suffocation, SIDS,
drownings, drug overdose, choking, electrocution, and other victims of
respiratory failure or deprivation of oxygen for any reason.
Endnotes
1. Scientific American, August 1977, 57.
2. S. Wolf, R.A.
Schneider, and M.E. Groover, “Further Studies on the Circulatory and Metabolic
Alterations of the Oxygen-Conserving (Diving) Reflex in Man,” (paper presented
before the American Clinical and Climatological Association, Colorado Springs,
Colo., 21 October 1964).
3. P.K. Hunt, “Effect and Treatment of the Diving
Reflex,” Canadian Medical Association Journal (21 December 1974).
4. J.
Atkins, S. Leshin, C. Skelton, and K. Widenthal, “The Diving Reflex Used to
Treat Paroxysmal Atrial Tachycardia,” Lancet (4 January 1975): 12.
5. Wolf
et al., “Further Studies.”
6. Ibid.
7. Ibid.
8. Newsweek, 22
August 1977, 79.
9. New York Times, 7 August 1977, 20.
10. Scientific
American, August 1977, 57.
11. Atkins et al., “Diving Reflex,” 12.
12.
Newsweek, 13 January 1975, 50.
13. P.G. Landsberg, “Bradycardia During
Human Diving,” South African Medical Journal (5 April 1975): 626-630.
14.
M.A. Wayne, “Conversion of Paroxysmal Atrial Tachycardia by Facial Immersion in
Ice Water,” Journal of the American College of Emergency Physicians (6 May
1976).
15. V. Whitman, “The Diving Reflex in Termination of
Supraventricular Tachycardia in Childhood,” Journal of the American College of
Emergency Physicians, letter to the editor (December 1976).
16. Letter to
Jeffrey Dobkin from Dr. Linus Pauling, dated September 2, 1992.
Copyright
Permission: Permission is hereby granted to use the writing of this technique to
delay brain damage in whole or in part to save lives, or to increase the public
awareness of this technique as a lifesaving emergency procedure—as long as
credit is given to Jeffrey Dobkin and the technique referred to as “The Dobkin
Technique for Delaying Brain Death.”
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