Pulse-Palpitations and an ethics question

[Hiker in Hawaii]

1. What is the general consensus about pulse rate in the cardiology community?...Still <100 bpm normal?...

2. I'm one of those people who notices his pulse when its not 72bpm....Generally speaking, are episodes of a rapid heart rate (I'm referring to rapid as being 80-100 bpm, not something very fast like 120+) mostly just an annoyance or do people need to check out each episode at an ER.....I've never had shortness of breath or fainted during an episode, ever...I hound (in a nice, tactful way though) my cardiologist about doing more testing, i had normal wcho 3 yrs ago and event monitor study revealed some atrial tachycardia but he was not concerned, but he responds in a tactful way that there is nothing more we need to do.....Maybe i'm just too anxious a person

3. On a side note, sort of an ethics question....My mom died of a PE back in Sept....She suffered cardiac arrest & was revived after 14 minutes....At first i though 14 minutes wasn't too long, but quickly found out it was actually WAY too long.....She was basically brain dead, only had very limited functions left....Based upon her wishes, i had machines turned off 4 days after her episode.....I guess my question is, do you think CPR efforts should be halted after say, no more than 5-7 minutes?....I mean, if people are revived after a long period but will need machines to survive and will never return to their normal self, perhaps its best to let them go if CPR efforts fail after a set designated time of 5-7 minutes....But i guess something like this is TOO highly controversial to set some rule in stone.....

[CCF HeartMD6]

1. A normal pulse is considered between 60 and 100 beats per minute.  However, it is not uncommon to see a pulse rate  30 minutes with excellent outcomes (no residual injury at all).  However, as you know from your own personal experience, this is not always the case.  Underlying co-morbidities, etiology of the cardiac arrest, and response time with appropriate oxygenation and CPR play a large role in the outcome.

[curmudgen]

A pulse is always good to have and routinely between 60- 80 is a "normal" number...


Answer to question 3  There are three distinct rules to stopping CPR:
When a doctor -- or some other appropriate emergency medical provider -- tells you to stop.
When you become exhausted and cannot continue (this gets messy, as we'll see below).
When the victim begins yelling at you to stop hitting him in the chest (this really happened to me). In other words, when the victim gets better.