They took turns to apply CPR for up to an hour at a time. Their efforts, along with a good dose of modern medical technology and the rich experience of doctors, have avoided brain death in a man after 3 hours of cardiac arrest.
It was this past Sunday, 8 January, when a Mr. Song, 58, who was lying on a bed in the Department of Neurology at Huai’an Second People’s Hospital, learned from his family and medical staff that they all remained haunted by his breathtaking rescue. Song had had a sudden cardiac arrest, and medical staff had finally been able to pull him back from the jaws of death after a 3 hour ordeal.
Zhang Chujie is a doctor in the Department of Emergency and Critical Care Medicine with the Huai’an Hospital. He had been out performing routine on-site medical checkups. That’s when Song, who was attending the makeshift clinic, suddenly suffered chest pain, lost consciousness and began to sweat profusely.
Zhang took him immediately to the ambulance waiting outside and on the way to hospital performed CPR throughout the journey, reports the Yangtze Evening News.
“I’m not getting any blood pressure readings and his heart has stopped. It’s a critical situation; stand by to receive”, shouted Dr. Zhang over the radio to his colleagues in the emergency room at Huai’an Second People’s Hospital.
Upon arrival, Song was rushed into Recovery, where over a dozen doctors and nurses had been making preparations. With the first order of business to get him on a ventilator, a colleague took over from Zhang to continue CPR.
Du Yeping, Director of the Department of Emergency and Critical Care, made a quick assessment and decided to instruct staff to employ ECMO (extracorporeal membrane oxygenation) to aid in Song’s rescue.
With the ECM life-support system pumping Song’s blood out of his body in order that it may remove carbon dioxide and return oxygen-enriched blood, so three medical staff took turns to continue chest compressions. Yet, there was still no fluctuation in Song’s heart monitor.
Eventually, with support from the ECMO, Song’s blood pressure began to rise. The team then transferred him to a catheter room, where Dr. Yang Naiquan, the Hospital’s Director of Cardiology, performed interventional surgery to determine the cause of cardiac arrest.
An angiography revealed that the heart’s three major blood vessels were completely obstructed. Thanks to his experience, Dr. Yang was able to open them and implant three stents, providing a lifeline.
But still the patient’s heart refused to beat. It was only after being transferred to the intensive-care unit, and a vast array of additional treatment by medical staff, that a very weak pulse was detected.
When all was said and done, Song had been under cardiac arrest for 3 hours.
Looking at her husband who had literally come back from the dead, Song’s wife thanked all the medical staff with Huai’an Second People’s Hospital, in the knowledge that their CPR efforts had ensured blood flow and thus avoided brain death.
Meanwhile, Dr. Zhang, whose performing of the initial CPR in the ambulance had provided hope for Song, had been able to rest for a while, to find his clothes were completely soaked through.
