Comment by jungletime | Hacker News Reader

Comment by jungletime | Hacker News Reader

My Dad had a cardiac arrest at 70. And consequently deprived of oxygen for 10+ minutes. My Mom did all she could with chest pumps waiting for paramedics. This kept him alive so he made it to hospital. When I saw my Dad, a few hours later, his eyes were glazed over, pupils dilated, unable to make sort of recognizable sound, just soft nightmarish screams, and stretching out his arms like he wanted to get away.

I thought surely his brain is gone, and that he will be in some sort of vegetative state for the rest of his life, if he lives at all. I was already convinced that was it for him. If at that point doctor asked me weather to "pull the plug", I probably would have agreed.

I couldn't be more wrong. Not only did he live. No brain damage at all. 4 years later he's still around. Today he went on a bike ride.

I'm not sure what the odds were for him. The Nurse did tell us that with every hour he is alive his chances kept improving. Brain damage was still a very large risk. But they lowered his temperature, with an ice blanker, to help with this.

Just keep in mind sometimes people can have remarkable recoveries too, especially with modern technology.

Absolutely, but in this case, the patient was terminally ill. The "best" possible outcome of the code would have been a few more weeks more months in a hospital bed.

70 year old otherwise healthy male? I suspect nobody asked you about pulling a plug because nobody thought you should. At least not so quickly.

That's much different from what is described in the article.

Wow! Almost the exact same thing happened to my Dad. Luckily some big burly removalists witnessed it, and they knew CPR and got to work.

He was out for (if I recall) 27 minutes. It was 4 days of intensive care without us knowing if he would have any brain function, he made a full recovery.

He was back at work in a few weeks, and he's doing great (albeit with a pacemaker).

As a counter story I once attended a talk given by an A&E consultant who was a bit dismissive of the trend for putting in defibrillators everywhere, such as at sports stadiums. He said that by the time someone had rushed to wherever the device was kept, retrieved and used it, it was likely that, at best, you'd be looking at the casualty surviving in a persistent vegetative state. Incidentally, someone asked about having oxygen supply and mask available for people who've collapsed. By all means, he said. That will make everyone feel better.The helpers because they are doing something, the victim because something is being done for them but other than that, it's useless.

I don't get it. Aren't A&E people in ambulances reaching for the defibrillator themselves? And don't the automatic defibrillators allow for a much faster response time in the case of fibrillation, lowering the chance at brain damage and the like?

I mean I don't know how often people end up needing one of those in real life and I'm pretty sure it's some weird conspiracy by the manufacturer(s) of that device, but still.

The opinion of that A&E "consultant" is unsupported by the available evidence. Public access defibrillation is clearly linked to better survival to discharge rates (i.e. people actually leaving the hospital).

EDIT: As an anecdotal example, I know of at least one person who is walking around today because of a defibrillator at a stadium. 17 year old male took a lacrosse ball to the chest, instantly triggering ventricular fibrillation[1]. The athletic trainer used an AED from the seating area and his heart was beating again before the ambulance arrived.

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commotio_cordis

No he was a consultant, without the "", which means that he had a medical degree plus postgraduate qualifications and about 10 years in hospital training positions usually including experience in different countries. At least that's the norm here.

That's great you guys are so lucky. This happened to my ex's dad and he has been in a vegetated state for years now. Very difficult for the family.

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