2023-09-29 10:49:59
Speedily wresting life from the scythe of death
It’s almost time to leave the hospital, but Ms. D.TN (Hung Yen) still can’t believe she just came back from the dead. Mrs. N. just thought she had just had a long sleep, even though in reality the 62-year-old patient had gone through a life-threatening moment due to a broken heart and two clinical deaths.
Dr. Dang Quang Huy, Deputy Director of the Cardiovascular Center, Vinmec Times City International Hospital, is the main surgeon in the rare surgery.
A week ago, Ms. N. went to Times City International Hospital (Hanoi) for examination because she felt short of breath and had chest pain. Doctors diagnosed her with acute myocardial infarction and prescribed coronary intervention. While preparing for the intervention, the patient suddenly fell into a coma and was confirmed by the doctor to be due to cardiac arrest.
“Very quickly, nurses arrived to provide first aid and then sounded the alarm on loudspeakers throughout the hospital so that doctors could come to the emergency room and perform surgery promptly. I was very shocked and scared when I heard the doctor say my wife had a broken heart because she had never had a history of heart disease, only had blood fat,” Mr. Nhat, the patient’s husband, recalled his wife’s life and death moment. .
Meanwhile, Dr. BS. Dang Quang Huy, Deputy Director of the Cardiovascular Center, Vinmec Times City International Hospital, still vividly remembers every minute and every second of the race against time to win patient N’s life.
Patients receive daily rehabilitation exercises
As soon as the patient’s heart stopped, the nurses provided emergency aid on the spot to help the patient’s heart beat again after 1 minute. At the same time, the battle to regain the patient’s life was launched when the hospital-wide Code Blue alarm system was activated. Just over 2 minutes later, the Code Blue emergency team with members including resuscitation doctors, anesthesiologists, cardiologists… arrived.
In more than 2 minutes, a “speedy” consultation was conducted right at the hospital bed. The patient was diagnosed with a left ventricular rupture causing bleeding into the pericardial cavity and acute cardiac tamponade. His condition was very critical and the decision was made to be taken straight to the operating room to have his heart repaired.
Less than 30 minutes later, the surgery was ready. But at this time, the patient suffered a second cardiac arrest. The risk of death as well as brain sequelae increases many times. Faced with a situation that was hanging by a thread, the surgical team quickly sawed off the sternum, releasing compression on the heart to help the heart beat again. The broken heart wall is then repaired.
The patient was able to walk and have a stable personal life after less than a week of facing the boundary of life and death
Dr. Huy said: “We didn’t even have time to stop the bleeding from the surgical wound.”
The surgery, which lasted nearly 4 hours, was successful beyond expectations. One day after surgery, the patient was awake, off the ventilator, had good heart function and could remember previous events. Less than a week later, the patient was able to walk and do activities like before surgery. In particular, the patient did not have any neurological sequelae “as if there had never been a life or death event”.
“I know a broken heart is a very rare case. Having a broken heart and being saved like my wife is especially rare in Vietnam. I am very grateful to the Vinmec doctors and nurses for bringing my wife back from the boundary of life and death, allowing my wife to be born a second time,” Mr. H. said emotionally.
American standard Code Blue: Administrative staff also know how to rescue cardiac arrest
Dr. Dang Quang Huy and MSc. Le Van Binh discuss the patient’s situation after major surgery
Dr. Huy said, according to world medical literature, heart rupture is a very serious and quite rare event, with a probability of less than 1% of myocardial infarction cases, but the death rate is very high. With experience in performing more than 2,500 heart surgeries, he himself has only seen 2 cases. Therefore, saving patient H.’s life according to Dr. Huy is a miracle.
According to the doctor, in rare cases like this, the golden time is only measured in a few minutes. Even if the patient is already in the hospital, if the hospital does not have a good anesthesia and resuscitation team, an experienced surgical team, and especially an effective organization, it cannot be saved. Even in cases that are operated on promptly, the survival rate is only 50% and the patient may suffer neurological sequelae, even being in a vegetative state due to brain damage.
“In Vietnam, there are only a very few specialized end-level cardiovascular centers that can successfully save lives of similar cases,” Dr. Huy said.
As the Code Blue team leader that day, MSc. Le Van Binh, Head of Intensive Care Department – Vinmec Times City International Hospital, evaluated the synchronous, smooth and quick coordination of all departments and rooms at Vinmec according to the established emergency alarm process. Preparation is the key to saving lives and reducing brain damage for patients. The process that the expert mentioned is Code Blue – one of the emergency alarm codes that Vinmec is applying to patients with sudden cardiac arrest.
According to MSc.BS. Binh, 100% of Vinmec employees can detect patients with circulatory arrest early, are trained in basic circulatory arrest first aid, and are retrained annually. In particular, all doctors and nurses of the Department of Intensive Care, Emergency Medicine and Anesthesiology are trained in advanced circulatory arrest according to the standards of the American Heart Association (AHA).
“Vinmec is a rare medical system in Vietnam that has deployed the Code Blue emergency circulatory system alarm system throughout the system since the hospitals went into operation. Not only that, Code Blue at Vinmec also meets American JCI standards. Accordingly, every security guard and administrative staff can detect and provide first aid to cardiac arrest patients. Vinmec’s Code Blue team members are always on duty 24/7 and in any situation can mobilize in the golden time to save patients’ lives,” said MSc. Binh.
With the vision of becoming an academic medical organization that brings the highest value and excellent experiences to patients, Vinmec is currently investing heavily to build a Center of Excellence in Cardiology with international qualifications. . In the coming time, Vinmec will deploy state-of-the-art techniques such as minimally invasive heart surgery, cardiac endoscopy, sutureless valve replacement, atrial fibrillation treatment with the world’s most modern technologies… to keep up with the trend. Global.
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