She escaped the worst. A 22 -year -old woman survived hypothermia and cardiac arrest after 4 hours of cardiac massage, Le Parisien reports this Friday, March 21. A small miracle, according to the medical team.
“We had never seen that,” says Doctaure Estelle Renaud, structural director of the Resuscitation Service of the Onisios Group of the Public Hospital of the South (GHPSO).
“We are looking for similar cases in scientific literature, but we find nothing. It does not mean that it does not exist, but it is extremely rare,” he explains.
A “anarchic” heart rate
The young woman is unconscious in a street in Nogent-Sur-Oise on February 9. While he was only 3 ° C that morning, the patient suffers from hypothermia, his body does not exceed the temperature of 25 ° C instead of 37 ° C. She also suffered a cardiac arrest.
Quickly, a fire team arrives at the site and offers a cardiac massage, with adrenaline injection.
“In normal times, the heart beats as a metronome, there was completely anarchic,” recalls Dr. Estelle Renaud.
The defibrillator used more than 40 times
To try to wake it up, doctors then use a defibrillator. “More than 40 times, while in general 10 to 15 shots, it is already a lot for this case,” explains the Oise doctor.
Despite the insistence of doctors, heart massages remain without success. Therefore, the unconscious young woman is transported to the emergency room.
This time, cardiac massages are carried out by a machine. Doctors continue to try to resurrect it with the defibrillator and thanks to adrenaline bites. But the patient still does not meet the care practiced. Then it is transferred to the resuscitation service.
“There are no neurological sequelae”
After another two hours of effort, the temperature of your body finally increases clearly, up to 32 ° C. A first victory.
“And there he opened his eyes,” recalls the doctor’s emotion.
This awakening is even more miraculous since the young woman today presents “without neurological sequelae”, even if her organs have “suffered” many heart massages.
“It is paradoxically the hypothermia that protected it”
How to explain such scenario? According to Dr. Estelle Renaud, “paradoxically the hypothermia that protected it.”
“The body is in hibernation, particularly the brain,” which has allowed us to preserve all vital organs, explains the doctor.
The head of the Oise Hospital resuscitation also recalls that it was also the ability to respond to emergency services that saved the young woman. “If someone collapses, you have to call at 15 and if they don’t breathe, you have to massage,” he said, emphasizing the importance of “time” in this type of situation.
Source: BFM TV
