Transcripts
DR. CORNEL:
He also reported that the heart
was not contracting well within the fluid. I
drained her pericardium but she just continued to
go on a rapid downward spiral and at 10:30 that
Sunday morning, the first of a series of cardiac
arrests occurred.
We started resuscitation, as
usual, with ventilation. She was already
connected to a ventilator but we changed the
pattern and we started chest compressions.
We gave her enormous doses of
the drugs that we usually use, the drugs like
adrenaline, initially with some response. But as
the cardiac arrest went on and on there was
really no response at all.
We did have the advantage that
she was in the intensive care unit when this
arrest occurred so we had all kinds of lines and
monitors in place. So we knew in great detail
what we were doing, how the circulation was
responding, and we knew that our resuscitation
was effective.
Normally within about a half
hour of starting a resuscitation effort like this
the heart is going again. But after that period
of time, we were seeing no response.
