Resuscitation

We went into the ward to see the patient that underwent sternal puncture.

Instead we stood in the ward - Dr, us, nurse - all looking outside the window.

Good thing is the patient was sleeping.

A patient on transfer slipped away and the transfer team had to resuscitate him or her in the middle of the stairs landing in the chilly November.

It's my first time watching CPR on real patient after almost 4 years in the medical school.

Maybe it's the fact that you rarely see such case given that even the nurses and doctor who realised what's going on stop on their track to watch.

The patient was put on the landing instead of the bed to provide firm base.

Two medical people took turns for chest compressions. It's known that chest compression is very tiring ~ according to new guidelines (2010), the rate should be AT LEAST 100 compressions/minute. Go figure!

Anyway, we got out of the ward to see the cardioversion machine on the 2nd floor. It took about 10 minutes before we were back to watching the CPR again (they were still resuscitating), now from the corridor.

I mean, we medical students were taught about CPR and this is where we will see the effectivity of it.

Before suddenly "The patient's dead"

As breezy as that.

I'm not talking about the remark made, rather I'm talking about the patient that die even after the notorious CPR was done.

15 minutes before, knowing there is a star at the end of the tunnel, the people went to perform CPR to revive the patient.

Still he left.

I said "What?How do you know that?The patient's dead"

My doctor said "I just know it. I have seen this before. They already stop resuscitating"

But then we saw the saline pack being hung back on the mobile bed.

Which means there's probability that they revived the patient.

Untill now, whether the patient was revived or dead, I never found out.

I just found out that I really need to go through the new guidelines of CPR and practise more on it.