Intense Interventions to save a life

flowerchild · Jan 8, 2003

After reading posts re: blood transfusions I started thinking about some of the situations that I have assisted with in order to attempt to save a life. I would love to read about your similar experiences.

I was working SICU, we had a 3 y/o s/p open heart who arrested. The surgeon was in the unit at the moment it happened. All normal measures attempted to restart the heart did not work. When a childs heart stops, it's the worst b/c it's so difficult to get it going again. The nurses were starting to look at each other, you know, when is this doc gonna call it? As a last resort, the surgeon had cut the wires, opened the freshly cracked thoracic and grabbed the heart and begun massage and pumping. Didn't work unfortunatly. Wished it had.

Another situation involved a 9 y/o with ICP through the roof. Shunt malfunction. I was in MICU this time. The surgeon was called and just about the time he arrived the child stopped breathing. We start CPR. Then right there in the unit he had us get the drill and he started drilling into the patients head to relieve the pressure. It worked of course and this one made it.