Spontaneous Artery Dissection – 44 year old female
Female patient with no prior history went into cardiac arrest at work. She was treated with bystander CPR and an AED, remaining in VF cardiac arrest. EMS responded and placed her on the EleGARD™ System, which they had adopted only two weeks prior. The team performed CPR with a LUCAS chest compression device and used an ITD. She began trying to breath on her own during the CPR effort. After a total of 22 shocks and a timespan of 29:00 minutes, she regained a pulse. She was found to have a dissected left anterior coronary artery which was already starting to heal and there was enough blood flow that she could be cooled down and observed. She was rewarmed 24 hours later and woke up. She was discharged home one week later, completely neurologically intact.
What is remarkable?
Patients with spontaneous dissection of the coronary artery who develop cardiac arrest with refractory VF have a very low chance for survival. This patient survived neurologically intact, despite a prolonged resuscitation and was cleared to return to work and school less than a month after her incident.
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