CPR

     In recent news is the story of an 87 year old woman who collapsed at an assisted living facility and the seemingly heartless nurse who refused to perform CPR despite urging from the 911 operator to save her life. The operator even encouraged flagging down people off the streets to perform CPR and save her.  The reality is that even if CPR were performed immediately by a highly trained individual, the chances of successfully resuscitating an 87 year old woman were about the same as that the woman would revive and become Angelina Jolie. The success rate of CPR in that age group is around three percent. The family said she would not have wanted life saving measures, the problem was there was no "Do Not Resuscitate" order on file.
     Televised medical series have propagated two opposing myths. One is that a high percentage of people revive after CPR, no worse for wear. No fractured sternum. No cracked ribs. Not even lasting effects from the trauma that necessitated CPR. That is because on television putting a main character in peril boosts drama and ratings, but killing off a main character is bad for ratings.  In real life CPR is painful and the victim, even if revived, is unlikely to survive to leave the hospital. That 87 year old's ribs would have snapped like matchsticks. I once had a hospital patient in her 50's who collapsed on a golf course, was resuscitated, and spent the next five days burning with a 105 fever while her heart caught up with the fact that the rest of her had died on the golf course. The only good thing about her "survival" is that her out-of state family had time to come and see her before she officially died.
    The other myth is that medical technology is able to keep people alive artificially, indefinitely. Even Christians can get caught up in the idea that their time of death is either up to them or the doctor. There is a third option, the one where God is in control. Psalm 139 says "All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be."  We do not change that with oat bran. Americans are wealthy enough to be bombarded with health options and information, and lifestyle and health choices can factor into our divine appointment with death, but they do not determine it. Maybe what our culture needs is not CPR, but RPC--Recognition of Providential Control.