Knowing When to Quit CPR

... using capnography:

White says that before the use of capnography, the only way of assessing blood flow to vital organs was by feeling for a pulse or by looking for dilated pupils. He says those methods are very crude and can fail. Snitzer never had a pulse despite good carbon dioxide readings. Without the information from capnography, he says it would have been reasonable to stop CPR — and Snitzer would have likely died.

"The lesson that I certainly learn from this is you don't quit, you keep trying to stop that rhythm as long as you have objective, measurable evidence that the patient's brain is being protected by adequate blood flow as determined by the capnographic data," says White.

-Wes