Bystanders are less likely to give cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) to women than men, particularly if the emergency takes place in a public area, according to research presented at the European Emergency Medicine Congress. The study also shows that in private locations older people, especially older men, are less likely to receive CPR.
The researchers don’t know what is causing this but it really troubles me.
We live in world in which merely calling women “ladies” can carry severe repercussions, including losing one’s job. Men have been taught for decades that to even talk to a woman without permission can and will be construed as harassment. Touching a woman without permission is the greatest taboo for (most) men in society. I know that logically, it’s unlikely I will get in trouble for practising CPR on a woman, but it’s very hard to overcome such immense programming and life-ending repercussions. Especially in a heated situation. This statistic doesn’t surprise me at all. I’m surprised it’s not wider.
I can only guess its because of the fear of getting sued for sexual assault. The details of the story unfortunately dont matter, many folks just read the headlines and theyll just remember “helping them will get you sued”
The difference was far smaller than i anticipated, so im mildly relieved. Hopefully, should i be right, we manage to dispell these fears
It’s Canadian research, is the situation in Canada re: suing each other the same as in the US? I don’t know much about that aspect.
Would be interesting to see similar research somewhere with few personal injury lawsuits (like NZ, where anyone injured by CPR is already covered by universal no-fault accident insurance).
From the original article: "I could have died peacefully, but now I am living a nightmare; I was sexually assaulted in broad daylight by the only person who was sober at the party; what are the chances?.”
The names a different in the articles and they are from different years. The "original" article seems to be from "GlobalNea" (which is now defunct? This is supposedly a picture of "Kim Wright" but there's only a single picture of her online.
It's not clear if it's a true story or not. If it happened in the US, there should be court documents, no?
My first thought is that maybe because women’s chests have been sexualized, men are more hesitant to perform cpr on women in a public place. Not saying that either piece of that puzzle is right or rational, by the way. I’d be interested to see the numbers on the gender ratios of people giving cpr to women in public places to see if that lines up.
I think also AFAB women’s heart attacks often don’t present the same as men’s, and a lot of knowledge about what a heart attach looks/feels like is based around what a man’s heart attack looks like.
Then there’s the way women’s expressions of pain are more likely to be discounted.
Sorry, I mean AFAB people (who are not Intersex. Unfortunately I’m not sure how biology affects the symptoms/ presentation of heart attacks for Intersex people).
This article provides a high-level overview of why there are sex differences in heart attack presentation, and it’s primarily about heart attack being a very general term to represent acute severe heart dysfunction, and that sex effects many metabolic differences (for example, men tend to have higher hematocrit levels, which can lead to a specific kind of ischemic event) as well as cultural ones (the kinds of exercise that women and men do are often different; the kinds of foods that men and women eat are different).
Fundamentally the sex itself has very little to do with how the heart attack happens and presents, but sex does generally effect circulating hormones which in turn effect circulation and metabolic profiles. Sex often correlates with gender presentation/identity which comes along with it’s own cultural values, which at a population level will effect things like cholesterol due to eating patterns or exercise. Finally, sexism itself is also at fault, in that many women’s medical concerns are dismissed rather than addressed which can lead to a worsening of symptoms due to a delay in care.
It could be that people are worried about hurting or touching women, or that they think a woman is less likely to be having a cardiac arrest.
I took a CPR class back in the day, they told us that, particularly with older patients, “if you don’t hear the ribs crack, then you’re not doing the compressions hard enough”. 😳
I left knowing how to do CPR… and hoping to never ever have to do it, particularly not on older people. Would I rather do CPR on a grandpa rather than on a grandma?.. I think I’d rather have someone else do it in either case.
Dr. Cossette said, "We would like to study this issue in greater detail to understand what lies behind the difference. This could help us make sure that anyone who needs CPR gets it, regardless of gender, age or location."
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