VERY weird code today

medsurgnurse, RN · Oct 14, 2005

I'm glad your patient had a good outcome! No I haven't seen anything exactly like that. You learn, see or do something new everyday.

weetziebat · Oct 14, 2005

Haven't seen anything like you described, but have been in a weird code situation.

Was working in NBICU when twins were admitted. The little girl was not doing well and finally coded. Was pronounced dead by the attending physician and placed (wrapped in a blanket) in an open crib till someone could take her body to the morgue. A couple of hours later, I had time to take her downstairs, and re-arranged her blanket. By golly, she was pink, breathing just fine, with heartrate a steady 150.

Her parents had been told of her death, and the poor doc was beside himself - couldn't believe what he'd seen, or what to do about it. She died again a few hours later, but the doc kept her body in the unit forever, to make sure she was actually dead.

HONEYBEAR · Oct 14, 2005

Haven't seen anything like you described, but have been in a weird code situation.
Was working in NBICU when twins were admitted. The little girl was not doing well and finally coded. Was pronounced dead by the attending physician and placed (wrapped in a blanket) in an open crib till someone could take her body to the morgue. A couple of hours later, I had time to take her downstairs, and re-arranged her blanket. By golly, she was pink, breathing just fine, with heartrate a steady 150.
Her parents had been told of her death, and the poor doc was beside himself - couldn't believe what he'd seen, or what to do about it. She died again a few hours later, but the doc kept her body in the unit forever, to make sure she was actually dead.

WOW :stone :stone

unknown99, BSN, RN · Oct 14, 2005

That was an "OH MY GOSH" moment!!

Several years ago , I had a guy vagal when we stood him up to transfer him to the chair. He went down, his heart stopped , and his respers stopped. We laid him back dow, called the code, and did one set of 2 breaths, and he pinked up, looked at me, and said "Am I dead?"

oramar · Oct 14, 2005

I was at the nurses station and the monitor tech said, SOMEBODY GO CHECK ON 9A NOW, in that voice that says NOW, lol. I go running and the woman is blue. I push the code button, turn on her light and start lowering her head so I can start compressions. At the same time, she gasps, turns her head, looks at me and smiles and is all of a sudden a nice pretty pink. OMG, I have never seen anything like it. I called out to the desk and asked what her monitor was now and she said, back in sinus! I asked the woman how she felt and she said, fine, why? LMAO, by this time all the doctors and nurses from other units were on the floor and I had to explain YES, she was blue when I found her, but she is fine now. Luckily, I had a strip of about 30 seconds of VFIB, (YES THAT IS RIGHT, V FIB!!!) To back up my claim. We ended up transferring her to intensive, but sheesh. Ever seen anything like that?

I used to work on a cardiac unit that had patients waiting for Automatic Implantable Defib. insertions. They were prone to episodes just like you describe. This person needs to see a cardiologist that specializes in people that have these episodes. They are very prone to sudden death. When I worked there was a special test that determined what part of the heart the vfib originated.(geez, I used to know the name of the test but just can't recall at moment, I am getting old) I hear these days they are even doing a test that destroys the small section of the heart muscle that sends out the impulse that initiates the vfib.

sjb2005 · Oct 14, 2005

I've seen lots of bizarre codes and bizarre dying processes. Recently a hospice pt had expired/pronounced by the nurse with no heart or lung sounds twice and in front of his family. After a bit, he took a deep breath and hung around for another day or 2.

Esme12, ASN, BSN, RN · Oct 14, 2005

The whole theory behind "PRECORDIAL THUMP" Great job!!!!!

UM Review RN, ASN, RN · Oct 14, 2005

I used to work on a cardiac unit that had patients waiting for Automatic Implantable Defib. insertions. They were prone to episodes just like you describe. This person needs to see a cardiologist that specializes in people that have these episodes. They are very prone to sudden death. When I worked there was a special test that determined what part of the heart the vfib originated.(geez, I used to know the name of the test but just can't recall at moment, I am getting old) I hear these days they are even doing a test that destroys the small section of the heart muscle that sends out the impulse that initiates the vfib.

Would you be referring to EPS--Electrophysiological Studies--that try to recreate the dysrhythmia and then ablate it?

I'd heard that ablation was rarely successful in a dysrhythmia of ventricular origin. Would think that the safest way to go would be with an AICD. That's Artificial Implanted Cardiac Defibrillator, for you nursing students following along.

CoffeeRTC, BSN, RN · Oct 14, 2005

I've seen lots of bizarre codes and bizarre dying processes. Recently a hospice pt had expired/pronounced by the nurse with no heart or lung sounds twice and in front of his family. After a bit, he took a deep breath and hung around for another day or 2.

omg...happened with my dad. He would stop breathing for like a minute. Then start up again and go for like 1-2 per minute...did this for almost 24 hrs (darn fool was waiting for my sis from Texas)

fluffwad · Oct 14, 2005

When I was working for a hospice, I had a patient who had no vital signs.....I'd been listening for an apical for at least a minute......then suddenly the man sucked in a huge breath and opened his eyes!

We avoided moving the hospice patients for a while just after they 'passed' because occassionlly it seemed to 'jump start' some of them , and the families just didn't need to go thru that twice.

allnurses Guide · Oct 14, 2005

We had a young woman, in her mid 30's, just quit breathing once. She still had a pulse, just had quit breathing. Barb, her nurse, called the code and the woman's mother was freaking out. Before the code team arrived, the woman suddenly just started breathing again, and suddenly kinda perked up and looked around at everyone like "what's going on"?

The woman was anorexic and had other psychological issues, and you have to wonder if the whole episode was a product of her own will. I never did find out what other reason there was for her to quit breathing.