Heart attacks. Defibrillators not welcome?

Most pacemakers don't have defibrillators. There are implantable defibrillators, but they are much less common than pacemakers. Due to the time critical nature of defibrillating someone in cardiac arrest, I can't see that it is worth trying to place them along tracks. Too unlikely that someone would arrest in the right place for it to be of use.

If someone is doing good cpr that time is extended considerably but even then the chances of collapsing with someone who can do cpr and someone else who can get the defib are not great. How effective they will be is muddied even further by the cause of the arrest. In town you have heart attacks, electric shocks, injuries and other medical events ie illnesses. Its unlikely that someone feeling unwell is going on a strenuous walk and barring lightning the chances of electric shock are pretty low. Being electrocuted has the best chance of success medical events and heart attacks the worst. Falling or being hit in a rockfall are places where a defib might be usefull but you have the added problem of keeping the rescuer safe so time could easily run out before you even get to the person. Defibs could easily save a life somewhere down the track and everyone will be hailing how good an idea they were but its a numbers game and if we put say 1000 defibs around all our favorite tracks and they save one life every 5 years are they value for money? I know some will say yes but that amount of money could of saved 100 lives or more had it been spent somewhere else.

Interesting the direction this post (of mine) has gone. I thought I was starting a conversation about dying whilst tramping, and whether that's a good way to go. lol Oh well ------

To get it back on track... Like anything it's subjective. If you were only given two choices. One to die on a lazy boy in a pee and mothball smelling lounge in a rest home. Or two, heroically cresting some peak before the heart gives up its a no brainer. But it's not that simple. If I was too die of a heart attack in the bush with a partner two young boys another on the way and a mortgage. It would be an absolute disaster. Selfishly and a little nobly, I like the idea of ending my days at a ripe old age bashing about the bush. But to be honest I would rather make it out. Rest in my lazy boy at home with my wife, boys and moko telling them about how their koros still got it. Then let them all go home and then go to sleep and have a heart attack. But I don't really want to die at all. Life is so short and it goes so fast and there is so much I want to see and do. I think dying alone in the bush would be kind of tragic. Dying with loved ones around me is how i want to go.

the fact that we tramp will extend our lifespan several years at least, or decades over more sedentary people, so you still get to spend more time with your family even if you do die on a mountain eventually... I've had jobs working with sedentary, obese people. some of them i could watch eating themselves into an early grave every lunch hour...

Thanks Gaiters, that's just the sort of conversation I was aiming for. When I was young with dependent children I would have totally agreed with you. These days, even my grandchildren don't have much to do with me anymore as they are all over 10 and elsewhere, so I tend to be either alone (which I am very much at peace with) or with my beloved partner. She is somewhat younger than me and has fears that she will end up caring for me if I lose my marbles. Thus pounding up a hill and having a heart attack would suit ME just fine. Not so good for her, if she was with me, but she would move on unencumbered by the aged me. "I think dying alone in the bush would be kind of tragic. Dying with loved ones around me is how i want to go." Thus for me it would not be tragic. I'm ready to go when my time is up although, as Wayno says, my active lifestyle hopefully means I have many more years left. Your picture of returning from the tramp first etc. sounds like the best of both worlds - thanks for that! I think its great to get this 'taboo' subject out in the air instead of always associating it with fear and how to stop it happening. Its the only sure thing in life!

One question though is how you "go" Most people go by accident be it a fall or impact or drowning. You could include the hypothermia's in that class Medical events are not that common but strokes and anurisms probably feature as high on the list as heart attacks. Defib will help the heart attack and may help the injuries if you can get it to the victim without becoming one yourself but pretty much every other time its only going to make the rescuer feel better. I know that if I had a stroke that stopped my heart that even if it was restarted the chances of going back to a normal life are almost nill. I would prefer you didnt try. But of course in a colapse you dont know always why it happened

We have cards on the reception counter at work (Christchurch Hospital) for people to take home to prompt a conversation about what people want in regard to the sort of things discussed above. Need to do it myself actually. I suspect my partner is a lot more sentimental and less pragmatic than I would want regarding deciding my fate in the scenario of a massive stroke that would leave me (in my father's words) 'a living corpse'.

Those cards bring up another issue as well. That is continuance for friends family business etc. A friend through another online club died of a stroke about a decade ago. I ended up helping his widow sort out the sale of a lot of his camping gear etc but the killer for us was that he was the only owner of an online forum run through a free forum site and despite having several moderators we could not prove that we should become owners of that forum as we were all in NZ and Aus and the forum was based in the USA. In the end that forum was pegged read only with a message pointing to a complete new forum. I suspect a similar situation might exist with this forum except that because its running private software on a private platform it could be worse. What will happen to this forum if we lose Matthew? There is a lot of very valuable stuff here. To take that further how quickly can your loved ones take over your affairs Can they access all your affairs? If you are still alive even if only in body not spirit the will doesnt kick in. Not a nice thing to think about I know

A couple of weeks ago we went to a "Death Cafe" which even made it into the paper http://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/life/79398938/mortality-on-the-menu-at-death-cafes.html Very interesting and great to see people facing up to their own mortality.