Bee Gees belter may help cheat death

Party ditty restarts hearts?

By Sarah Bee • Get more from this author

Posted in Bootnotes, 17th October 2008 12:44 GMT

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The Bee Gees' 1977 falsetto stomper Stayin' Alive could be the latest tool in the fight against people dying, according to a new study.

Bloomberg soberly relays that the slouchy beat of the squealy white-men-big-hair disco evergreen was found to help medical students attain the correct pace for chest compressions. The University of Illinois College of Medicine at Peoria put ten doctors and five med students to the funky test, playing them the mildly irritating but actually kind of awesome track as they practiced CPR on dummies.

The strut-tastic tune packs 103 beats a minute, which is almost exactly the number of chest compressions the American Heart Association recommends for successful cardiopulmonary resuscitation. Weeks later, the sawbones in the small study could attain the same rhythm again by playing the disco doozie back to themselves in their heads.

Researcher David Matlock said in a statement that a larger study was needed, but these initial results were promising.

In other news, doctors announce that playing floundering rock-opera whale Bat Out Of Hell - while unsuitable for CPR due to its erratic zooming tempo - produces excellent results in rousing the comatose.

"It appears to be uniquely stimulating," said a researcher. "One chap who'd been completely unconscious for some months leapt out of bed and dashed across the room to the tape recorder. Extraordinary." ®

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