Ever have a patient dead and then NOT dead?

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Specializes in Corrections, Cardiac, Hospice.

I had two very unique experiences over the last 2 days.

First: Tonight I took care of a gentleman who died at 12:25 AM. He had NO heartbeat and no resperations for at least 5 minutes. Then, 10 minutes later his son came down the hall saying "dad is breathing!" I assured him it was probably reflex breathing that we see quite frequently with the COPD patients...At first that is exactly what I thought it was, but then the breathing became more frequent and regular. Checked his chest, still no heartbeat. BUT, I could palpate a carotid pulse. (He did die at 1am, but still.....)

Second: Walked into a man's room on Monday and found him holding his 100% non-rebreather in his hand. He was blue, agonal breathing, and unresponsive to a sternal rub/nail bed pressure. His left eye was half open and rolled to the back of his head. I called another nurse to come sit with him while I called his family. It would take them at least 45 minutes to get to the facility He had been incontinent of urine, so the aide helped me clean him up and put a new gown on him. A few minutes later, she came back in and said in his ear "your daughter just called. She said to hold on, the family is on their way." This man (no lie:nurse:) sat straight up in bed, opened his eyes, looked me straight in mine and said "well, I guess I had better get my act together then, hadn't I?:bowingpur He spent the next half hour talking to me until they got there. I am thinking he threw a PE, but who knows? His family was thrilled to have that little bit of extra time with him. He passed the next day.

So, anyone else have anything like this happen? I swear, I have seen more amazing things in the two years I have been in Hospice than in all my previous years of nursing. I had one patient a month or so ago that wasn't moving his chest when he breathed. His heart continued for Oh.....THREE FREAKING HOURS, but he wasn't breathing. The only thing I can figure on that one is he was passing air I couldn't hear through an old Trach stoma.

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Specializes in Ortho, Case Management, blabla.

I remember a patient that was dead, they did a full blown code on them for over an hour. Totally flatlined. They finally gave up after going all out - trying everything in the crash cart and then some. Less than a minute after they decided to stop doing compressions/bagging, the patient's heartrate went into NSR and they started breathing again spontaneously. Talk about near dead experiences.

ps: the patient was discharged 3 days later in fine health.

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I remember a patient that was dead, they did a full blown code on them for over an hour. Totally flatlined. They finally gave up after going all out - trying everything in the crash cart and then some. Less than a minute after they decided to stop doing compressions/bagging, the patient's heartrate went into NSR and they started breathing again spontaneously. Talk about near dead experiences.

ps: the patient was discharged 3 days later in fine health.

wow!!!!

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Specializes in Telemetry, Case Management.
I remember a patient that was dead, they did a full blown code on them for over an hour. Totally flatlined. They finally gave up after going all out - trying everything in the crash cart and then some. Less than a minute after they decided to stop doing compressions/bagging, the patient's heartrate went into NSR and they started breathing again spontaneously. Talk about near dead experiences.

ps: the patient was discharged 3 days later in fine health.

:eek:Holy freaking' cow!!!!:eek:

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Specializes in Peds/Neo CCT,Flight, ER, Hem/Onc.

I had one. Old guy with COPD. Came in coding and we worked him another 30-45 minutes. No pulse, no respirations, NO CARDIAC MOTION ON ULTRASOUND, no auscultated heart sounds and totally smurfed (Ya'll know what I mean that blue from the chest up look). I went in a full 20 minutes later to do morgue care and noticed his ears were a little pinker which I thought odd. Then he took a breath. OK agonal respirations. Then he took another and he was getting a little pinker. Counted his rate 14bpm...okay not agonal. Checked a pulse well gosh darn it he had pulse. I threw the curtain open (his room was right in front of the NS) and yelled "Dr. N he's aliiiiiiiiiiiiiiive" in my best scary movie voice. Dr. N. practically vaulted over the desk and verified that this guy had indeed been reanimated. Sent him to the ICU. He was extubated the next day and hollering at the nurses to get him a cigarette!

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Specializes in CCU & CTICU.

I've had a pt fluctuate b/w asystole and sinus brady (on his own!) but he wasn't aystole long enough to code him or anything.

I remember a patient that was dead, they did a full blown code on them for over an hour. Totally flatlined. They finally gave up after going all out - trying everything in the crash cart and then some. Less than a minute after they decided to stop doing compressions/bagging, the patient's heartrate went into NSR and they started breathing again spontaneously. Talk about near dead experiences.

ps: the patient was discharged 3 days later in fine health.

Wow, lucky person!

I threw the curtain open (his room was right in front of the NS) and yelled "Dr. N he's aliiiiiiiiiiiiiiive" in my best scary movie voice. Dr. N. practically vaulted over the desk and verified that this guy had indeed been reanimated.

This is hilarious!

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Specializes in Med Surg, Hospice.

Nope... but I have had 2 since I've started that were dumps from the telemetry unit... they swear they were alive when they shipped them up, but they sure as heck weren't alive when I got them on my floor.

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Specializes in all things maternity.

we had a crotchety old woman once that died and was coded almost 40 minutes before the doctor would call it. No pulse, no heartbeat felt or auscultated, blue as can be, no respirations. Family was called in and techs came in to do a quick bath and prepare the body. They turned to woman to wash her back and she started swinging and hitting and hollered "Will you quit it. I'm trying to get some sleep here." (I cleaned the language up a bit, LOL) Both techs came screaming out of the room and refused to go back in.

:saint:

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Specializes in Peds/Neo CCT,Flight, ER, Hem/Onc.

Also had a related experience, sort of, in nursing school. We had a death on the floor and one of the orderlies was taking the body down to the morgue (this was before we had nice discreet carts we just threw a sheet over them). Anyway, Triss, the orderly, was this huge black man with a really big afro who we all loved and thought wasn't scared of anything. He got on the elevator alone and just then we had a power failure so he got stuck. Apparently just about the time everything went black the DB let out this really loud long groan and moved under the sheet. People could hear Triss screaming throughout the building. When they finally got the door open he bolted and refused to ever move a body again. The really freaky thing is his hair turned gray almost overnight. Seriously! I am not yanking your chains.I would have probably had a slightly different physiologic response. Incidentally the noise he heard was air that had been pumped into the guy while bagging him that just chose that particular moment to escape.

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