Compressions

Chest compressions alone are as effective in rescuing victims of heart attacks as conventional cardiopulmonary resuscitation that combines compressions with forced breathing, researchers said Wednesday. Studies in Washington and Sweden confirm the growing idea that the breathing component of CPR is necessary only for children and those who have suffered drowning or who have respiratory problems. Recent guidelines based on these and earlier studies may overcome some of the fears of bystanders who are reluctant to initiate CPR because of the danger of infectious diseases.

NASCAR driver Denny Hamlin suffered a compression fracture in his lower back in the last-lap crash in Fontana, his team said Monday. Hamlin, who already had a history of back problems, damaged his L1 vertebra after slamming head-on into the inside wall at Auto Club Speedway during Sunday's NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race. Hamlin, 32, hoped to be released from a nearby hospital Monday to fly home to North Carolina, his team Joe Gibbs Racing said. The Cup series doesn't race again until April 7, at Martinsville (Va.)

It was 4:05 a.m. on Oct. 29, 2009. I heard my wife, Dianne, say, "I think I'm having a heart attack. " I opened my eyes and saw her standing in the bathroom doorway. She grabbed her chest, took one step and collapsed on the bed. Two weeks earlier, a friend had e-mailed me a medical report stating that chest compressions were better than traditional CPR and that the survival rate was greatly improved because chest compressions not only massaged the heart but sent blood into the brain, thus preventing brain damage.

NEW YORK — This might be the year to expect some surprises at the U.S. Open. Play in the year's final tennis major begins Monday at 8 a.m. PDT, with defending women's champion Samantha Stosur getting the honor of opening on Arthur Ashe Stadium against Petra Martic of Croatia. And the first men on Ashe court will be third-seeded Andy Murray, the newly crowned Olympic champion, and Alex Bogomolov Jr., who once played as an American and now represents Russia. This summer has been jam-packed with the insertion of the Olympics into the short space between Wimbledon and the U.S. Open.

Automated external defibrillators, which allow a layman to shock a person back to life after a heart attack, can nearly double the chances of survival for heart attacks suffered in airports, casinos and other places where there are bystanders able to help. But in hospitals, it's a different story, researchers said Monday. There, the devices — which have become widely used in recent years — not only provide little benefit but actually increase the risk of patients dying, a team of investigators reported at a Chicago meeting of the American Heart Assn.

Ninety-six minutes of CPR. It's hard to comprehend, both for those who know cardiopulmonary resuscitation and those who don't. And yet, it saved Howard Snitzer's life. The Goodhue, Minn., resident had gone to buy groceries when he collapsed from a massive heart attack. And that's when townspeople went into action. Of course, someone called 911. But more than 20 people, according to media reports, lined up and gave him CPR. ABC News picks up the story here: "When the paramedics arrived via helicopter, they witnessed an astonishing scene.

For those of you inclined to administer CPR to someone in need, but put off by the idea of mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, here's more affirmation that you can can help with chest compressions alone: The American Heart Assn.'s new guidelines, released Monday, say that laypeople should be encouraged to do “Hands-Only CPR.” A study published online Friday in Lancet concludes that patients treated with chest compressions alone were more likely to survive than patients who received standard cardiopulmonary resuscitation.

"Stayin' Alive" might be more true to its name than the Bee Gees ever could have guessed: At 103 beats per minute, the old disco song has almost the perfect rhythm to help jump-start a heart. In a small study from the University of Illinois medical school, doctors and students doing CPR maintained nearly the ideal pace of chest compressions while listening to the catchy, sung-in-falsetto tune from the 1977 movie "Saturday Night Fever."

As I begin this column, it is Wednesday afternoon, Aug. 22. I have been alive 20,873 days, if my math is correct, and I hope to add to the tally. But the knees I was born with will not be joining me for the rest of the trip. The clock ticks. The surgeon scrubs. An editor tells me this is a good thing. After a string of columns on end-of-life issues, I'll have another way to write about the senior experience, he says. I'm not a senior citizen, I tell him. If you've got an AARP card, he says, (I thought it would be good for discounts)

Stac Electronics is a Carlsbad, Calif., software company with a clever product called Stacker that, by compressing data two for one, lets you stuff twice as much of it onto the hard drive in your personal computer. Stacker is well-known. Less well known is the company's ability to compress the value of your investment. If you bought Stac when it went public less than a year ago, you paid $12 a share. If you still have it, it's worth about $3. That's a compression ratio of 4 to 1. Amazing.

The police officers who pummeled Kelly Thomas during a violent encounter last summer in Fullerton caused his death by cutting off the flow of oxygen to his brain when the fight intensified and they piled on the homeless man, a coroner's pathologist testified Tuesday. Dr. Aruna Singhania, who told the court she had performed 11,000 autopsies, said the difficulty Thomas had breathing because of chest compression as the struggle wore on was worsened by facial and nasal bleeding. The testimony came in the second day of a preliminary hearing that has orbited around a graphic and disturbing video of Thomas' being hit by police outside the bus depot in downtown Fullerton.

They touch down at another NBA city and check their smartphones to help them adjust to a new time zone while their own bodies struggle. They arrive with bags under their eyes and often depart that city a day later sleepless, jet-lagged, stowing sore joints and heavy legs. During this lockout-shortened NBA season, it's been a grueling routine: 66 games played in 124 days, a pace of one per 1.88 days, or 8.5% faster than a usual season. Every team has played back-to-back-to-back sets and stretches such as nine games in 12 days; the Clippers played 20 games in 31 days in March, a marathon that has not been on the NBA schedule in 45 years.

It had been a month since the Clippers conducted a full-fledged practice — the last one was on Feb. 27. Even the practice session they had Tuesday wasn't all-out, but it still gave the Clippers a chance to watch some videos, run a few drills and get in some shooting. The condensed NBA schedule is the reason the Clippers have had so few practices. This week brings three home games in four days, starting Wednesday night against the Phoenix Suns at Staples Center. "There were some things we talked about today," Clippers Coach Vinny Del Negro said Tuesday.

Everybody hurts. —R.E.M. It's a day-to-day existence for a legion of NBA millionaires. Knees are sore, ankles are sprained, hamstrings are achy . . . and that's just the Milwaukee Bucks. The list of injuries from this shortened season has an unabridged feel. You couldn't cast an All-Star ballot or embark on a most-valuable-player debate without touching upon at least a few players who have missed games. Derrick Rose (toe, back), Dwyane Wade (ankle)

Questions about their compressed schedule were initially met with shrugs. Sure, it was going to be exhausting, the Lakers said, just like it would be for every other NBA team. Well, yes and no. It's true that all teams will have played 66 games by the end of the regular season on April 26 as part of the lockout-condensed schedule. But that doesn't mean they're all taking the same path to get there. The Lakers opened the season with back-to-back-to-back games, part of a wobbly-legged stretch in which they and Oklahoma City were the only teams to play 10 games in 15 days.

Things we've learned so far this season: • The Miami Heat has a sense of purpose. Playing without Dwyane Wade (sore left foot) and LeBron James (sore left ankle) Thursday at Atlanta, the Heat showed mental toughness in a 116-109 triple-overtime victory that ran its record to 7-1. • The aging San Antonio Spurs (5-2) might have one more title run left even though Manu Ginobili is injured again.

Disk compression is a quick trick to getting more hard drive space without adding another hard drive to your PC. The programs fool the computer's operating system into thinking that there is a new physical hard drive. Actually, compression programs squeeze information to just a fraction of its original size and put it all into one big file. When information is written to or read from the disk, it is automatically compressed and decompressed as needed. Not all information compresses equally well.

Re "LAPD Officers Urge Approval of 3-Day Week," Feb. 12: Reader Michael Lohr (letter, Feb. 21) is either mistaken or not in possession of all the facts when he complains that officers would escape working four hours per week on the three-day, 12-hour plan. Under the compressed work schedule officers work three 12-hour days a week plus two additional eight-hour shifts per four-week deployment period. These extra eight-hour shifts can be used to address special enforcement problems (actually placing more officers on the street in addition to the regular watches)

Kiva's Compressible Packing Cubes are nylon cloth bags with breathable mesh top panels that are designed to keep the contents from getting that stale smell you often encounter with the self-zipping compressible plastic packing bags. Just stack your stuff in the bag, zip it up, then zip up the compressing secondary zipper while pressing down on the contents. Shirts will compress more than shoes, but you will get a slimmer bag that can then be packed into a carry-on or check-through piece.

After riding L.A.'s Commuter Express for more than 20 years, Janis Risch said the 423 bus from Agoura Hills to downtown is showing its age: In heavy downpours, the roof leaks. In sweltering heat, the air conditioner sometimes dies. So it was with a smile Wednesday that Risch climbed aboard one of the city's new commuter buses for its inaugural run. "These feel much better," Risch, 60, said as she leaned back into her adjustable seat. Over the next three months, transit officials plan to roll out 95 new buses.