Now what happened Friday the 16th!

VT arrest and a save!

Friday 16th May, a call was received for a 65 year old female from an eastern suburb with chest pain. The job was tasked to us, with P1 Taz Rundle and my brand new TAO who was on her third shift having graduated from the AEC exactly one week prior.

Patient contact was made inside a private residence at 2233 hrs with the patient, her husband and grandson all present inside the master bedroom. The patient stated she had experienced a rapid onset of central chest pain (‘it felt heavy’) with several episodes of vomiting and one of diarrhoea.

Something was making my diagnostic bump itch so I went straight for the ZOLL M Series defibrillator monitoring dots and after applying these I continued with history taking from the patient. Almost as soon as I had commenced this, the defibrillator tone went ‘wild’ and I stole a quick glance before returning to the patient to see her begin a hypoxic seizure.

Somewhere in the next 30 seconds my partner was instructed to ‘get me some oxygen quick’, connect the defibrillator to the shock pads that I now have on the patient, get the grandson out of the room (he would have been all of seven years) and we still have to get the husband to let go of the patient! I must have called for ICP back-up with something like ‘my patient is in some kind of funny rhythm’ or something like that, yeah the sphincter was quivering!!!!!

Analysis showed the patient to be in a shockable rhythm VT in Torsade de Pointes and a single 150 joule shock was delivered at 2236 hrs. No further shocks were delivered and CPR was commenced briefly < 2 minutes until the patient looked directly into my eyes and told me she must have fallen asleep and now felt better. GSC = 15 but amnesic of the event including me doing CPR on the bed (it was one of those bedrooms, no space around the bed).

God bless my partner, she got the bed ready as I had asked,,,, all the way into the house, so it was grab the gear, slide the patient off the bed stand, swivel and sit down on it and meet the IC as we are exiting the house.

It was my first cardiac arrest as the senior officer.
It was my first cardiac arrest with a TAO as a partner.

(maybe more of my prodigious prose may be used by the papers if this job gets published, which it should ,media love a good story)

And I think we did a shit hot job without any Intensive Care Paramedics.

It was pointed out later that I could have given aspirin sooner than I did which was en route to hospital but my defence, I was busy and I could have put the seatbelts on before we moved the pt? Again I was busy and it was a terrible tangle with leads and O2 tube and I just wanted to go.

I know that I was excited for the rest of the night but on a deeper level I was also very reflective and humbled by what we had achieved. I could have happily picked up messy vomiting drunks for the rest of the night,,,,, hang on we did! The praise from the ICP was very touching and only added to my feelings of humbleness. I greatly respect that officer and it was said to me quietly the first time and that made it even more important.

So, the Taz will get another photo op in Sirens cause this pt will get a ZOLL watch as well!

This job also makes me realise that I am correct in not going for the level 5 positions just yet, I know that I have been very lucky to have had two saves from witnessed arrests in less than two years. I'm not ready just yet to be the last chance for the pt that rests on the ICP officer.

Here are some scans of the ZOLL print.



The VT!



The Shock!



The return of output!

Be careful out there and I'll see you at the Big One.

Taz