At the 6th floor Electrocardiograph Room outside of the Clinics Building of Guang’anmen Hospital China Academy of Chinese Medical Science at 9:40 morning April 12th, one middle-aged man suddenly fell onto the ground and convulsed when waiting to see the doctor.
The medical staff working in the endoscope center heard the call for help and immediately appeared at the spot. They learned about the patient’s condition via their relatives and checked the patient through lying the patient on the back on the very spot. The patient was weak in awareness, incapable of responding with cold arms and legs, his breath and main artery pulse could not be felt, which told his condition was so much emergent. Meanwhile, the staff with Electrocardiographic Room timely arrived and immediately went for the extrathoracic compression. Within few minutes, the Chief Physician Yang Xiujie and Chen Jianhua with Emergency Department arrived to organize the rescue. The nurse built the venus channel, the doctor with Anesthesiology Department went for cannula and externally connected with simple respirator to support his breath, and doctor with ICU offered the patient with lasting CPR. Thanks to the concerted effort of doctors and nurses from different departments, the patient recovered from the pulse of main artery at 10:00, when he was transferred to ICU for futher rescue. When the patient was in ICU, the patient repeatedly suffered from VF, so he was treated with electric defibrillation, drug therapy and external chest compression for long. The patient recovered with the sinus rhythm and awaked with flushing complexion capable of responding to the medical staff query at 10:38, such that the CPR was successful in this sense.
The patient was stable in vital signs and clear in awareness, and his body functions recovered ready to shift to public ward for treatment. When the patient was clear-headed, he only remembered that everything went black, when he re-opened his eyes, he found himself in the ward. He held the hands of the doctors and said “I am so fortunate to live again because of you.”
It was learned that the patient suffered from atrial fibrillation and mitral valve replacement, so he went for the drug therapy for long, among the high risk group to fall into the sudden death. Normally, the brain cells would run into irreversible damage within four minutes of the sudden death. If it lasted for over 10 min, even if the patient was rescued, it was highly possible for the patient to fall into the brain death. In such sense, the sudden death rescue has golden four minutes. The medical staffs involving in the rescue at that day were from Emergency Department, ICU, Endoscopy Room, Endocrinology Department and Spleen and Stomach Diseases Department. Their teamwork and active efforts showed their rapid responsiveness and emergency response level.
In the course of the rescue, the patient and his relative were much moved via taking photos and video and sending appreciation letter, speaking highly of the hospital medical staff in terms of their medical ethics, medical skill, responsiveness and timeliness.
Author: Yin Lu
News source: China News ofTraditional Chinese Medicine
Editor: Guo Yutong
