My two last shifts I've had two cardiac arrests. Yesterday's was 'asystole' on arrival, he was a young-ish 57 year old male, still warm, no cardiac history, got on scene in less than 5 minutes(no bystander CPR though). We worked it for awhile but never got anything back.
The other arrest was a 'witnessed' arrest(by us). Originally it came in as possibly diabetic issues, right away we knew he was sick, we called for ALS(Advance Life Support), did some immediate procedures as his level of consciousness was decreased. He was awake and answering our questions somewhat and as soon as we went to move him he went into cardiac arrest. Down onto the hard floor we put him and we began CPR, i vividly remember my first three compressions on his chest I could feel his ribs breaking under the weight of my hands, the AED was on but no advisable shocks. ALS soon arrived, patient was intubated and drugs pushed, we worked it for almost 45 minutes. We had him...we lost him...we had him...we lost him. Three times he re arrested, balancing the fence post not knowing if he was going this side or that side. Finally we got him stabilized, loaded up and transported to the hospital. His outlook was not great but we did the best we could do. It was still amazing though witnessing somebody go into cardiac arrest right before your eyes. The wonderment of life...
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