save a life

Had another save last night. Fire dept was doing CPR when we arrived on scene. Pt was pulseless and apneic. History of renal failure and dialysis. My partner intubated while I started an IV. Veins were hard to find, typical of a dialysis pt. Finally found one in the hand and we started pushing drugs. She got 2 rounds of Epi down the ETT and then atropine, epi, bicarb and narcon in the IV. Then she had a pulse of about 120 and a blood pressure of about 160/80. She maintained both the pulse and the BP during transport to the hospital, although she was still apneic. The ER doc gave insulin and D50 after drawing blood for labs. Turned out that her potassium was quite high, which is presumed to be the cause of the cardiac arrest. She was transferred up to ICU after being stabilized in the ER.

About 2 months ago, my partner and I ran a call for an unresponsive man. When we arrived on scene, the man had agonal respirations (meaning he was barely breathing and about to stop breathing). When we got him in the ambulance, he did stop breathing and his heart stopped…we had our cardiac arrest of the shift. What a way to wake up at 6 am. We did everything we could for him. Started an IV and hung fluids, intubated him with an artificial airway, performed CPR, gave him drugs to stimulate his heart, then drove him to the hospital for more treatment. While en route to the hospital, his heart started beating again. He was still in bad shape upon arrival to the hospital, but he was alive. He spent 2 months in the ICU, attached to various machines that helped him to breathe, eat, and basically remain alive. Last week my partner took him home. He will never be fully recovered mentally, but he had terminal cancer anyway. He was looking around and attempting to speak to his family. My partner said that it was obvious that he recognized his family and that he seemed happy to be home.

So there you have it. It may not have been the dramatic story most people tell when they talk about how they saved a life, but this is mine. My partner and I saved a life, and he lived to go home from the hospital. That’s not very common. Hopefully we’ll have more of these stories to tell in the future. This is just my first life saved and I’m pretty proud to be able to tell the story. ;-)