On June 11, Mr. T.V. T. (72 years old, residing in Ho Chi Minh City) was transferred to Khanh Hoi General Hospital with severe angina lasting about an hour. After examination, doctors determined that the patient had acute myocardial infarction accompanied by low blood pressure, and was quickly transferred to Gia Dinh People's Hospital.
However, as soon as he arrived, the patient's condition became critical. He fell into a ventricular tachycardia, a dangerous form of arrhythmia that caused the heart to lose its ability to pump blood. Despite chest compressions and multiple electric shocks, the heart still did not beat again.
Faced with a critical situation, the resuscitation team activated the E-CPR procedure. In just a few minutes, the VA-ECMO system was established right in the cardiac catheter room to temporarily replace the cardiopulmonary function, maintaining blood circulation to the organs.
When hemodynamics stabilize, doctors perform a coronary angiography, identify the blocked artery branch and intervene to reconnect immediately. Immediately after that, the patient's heart rate gradually recovered.
The patient continued to receive intensive resuscitation, body temperature control and continuous blood filtration to protect the brain and important organs. After 3 days, the patient quit ECMO and was completely awake after a week.
According to BS.CKI Do Nhat Huy, Department of Cardiovascular Resuscitation, E-CPR is a survival opportunity for cases of cardiac arrest that do not respond to conventional cardiopulmonary resuscitation due to cardiovascular causes such as myocardial infarction, acute myocarditis, pulmonary embolism or critical ventricular arrhythmia.
The special thing about the case is that the patient is 72 years old. Most studies in the world only deploy E-CPR for patients under 65-70 years old because the elderly often have many underlying diseases and have a lower recovery rate.
However, age is not an absolute limit. The important thing is to choose the right patient, the cause of cardiac arrest can be treated, and the patient is given emergency care in a golden time," Dr. Huy said.
According to Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nguyen Hoang Hai, Director of Gia Dinh People's Hospital, the hospital has deployed regular E-CPR techniques for patients with cardiac arrest inside and outside the hospital. In the past 18 months, the unit has performed more than 20 E-CPR cases, with a survival rate of about 35%; all surviving patients can return to normal life.
Doctors recommend that when signs such as severe angina, pain spreading to the shoulders, neck, jaw or arms, accompanied by shortness of breath, sweating, nausea appear, people need to call emergency 115 immediately. Taking patients to a medical facility with early intervention will determine their survival chances.
