This certainly is cracking arecord or two. The main take home hereis that effectively chest compressions kept him alive. That is why the new protocols do not emphasizeblowing air into the lungs at all. Inhis case it took 20,000 compressions or one hundred compressions per minute.
Thus anyone confronted with acollapsed victim needs to call 911 and immediately begin chest compressions. This will prevent brain cell death while waitingfor the emergency response team. In thisvictim’s case, his heart only failed as he entered the hospital.
I personally collapsed from aheart attack over five years ago and immediate CPR allowed the heart to berestarted twenty minutes later. I alsoavoided damage when a mere five minutes of inattention would have allowed damageto the brain. It was after my event andlikely several similar cases that the CPR protocol itself was changed toclearly emphasize the compression part.
What is happening is that theheart is not beating at all and normal circulation has stopped. Therefore it is impossible for oxygenacquired by the lungs to go anywhere at all. Yet the compressions are causing a tidal flow to be established in thebody in which the blood sloshes back and forth through the tissues includingthe brain. It may be only an half aninch either way.
The blood itself carries a greatdeal of oxygen and the body itself drops into some form of hibernation. Thus the movement keeps the cells replenishedwith some oxygen to survive. Astoundingly,while in my case twenty minutes proved enough, in this case we have justlearned that the oxygen availability is good for a full three and one halfhours.
This means that accident victimsgoing into cardiac arrest can be put on a compression machine and ample time isavailable to bring the body temperature down to allow major repair.
All of a sudden cardiac arrestbecomes survivable and even a useful event for the seriously injured because itallows more radical treatment options.
Miracle man comes back 'from the dead' after 3.5 hours - medical skilland high tech machine save him
by Danny Buckland, Daily Mirror 14/01/2011
A MAN whose heart had stopped was brought back from the dead afterthree-and-a-half HOURS.
Arun Bhasin, 53, was rushed into hospital after being found unconsciousin the street in temperatures of -10C.
But as he was being wheeled in, he went into cardiac arrest and wasjust minutes from death.
By pure luck, he’d been taken to the Croydon University Hospital
They put him on a pioneering new CPR machine which performed almost20,000 life-saving chest compressions.
Dr Nigel Raghunath, said: “He was pretty much dead in that he had nopulse or heartbeat for three-and-a-half hours so it is amazing that we got himback.”
He added: “I’ve not seen any-thing like it in 15 years in A&E.”
Engineer Arun, of East London ,admitted: “I should be dead. I can’t believe they kept me alive for so long.It’s a miracle.
“They are amazing people and Iknow I am very, very lucky.”
The drama started over Christmas as he walked home from a party inCroydon, East London , when he hit his head.
He was taken to hospital but his body temperature had plummeted 10degrees. Medics, led by Dr Raghunath and Russell Metcalfe-Smith, hooked him upto the AutoPulse machine to keep his heart and lungs functioning.
Dr Raghunath explained: “It meant that we could get on with the job ofgetting him back while it gave him a chance of recovery.
“If not we would have needed relay teams of people continuallyperforming chest compressions while we worked around them.”
The team battled on and the machine used up four batteries.
With the clock approaching three-and-a-half hours, Arun’s pulsereturned and his heart flickered back to life.
Mr Metcalfe-Smith said: “You read about this sort of things in medicaljournals but never expect to come in contact with them.
“The machine bought us the time and the skill of the medical team didthe rest.”
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