Women survives 45 minutes with no pulse

[dragon]

BOCA RATON, Fla. - A Florida mother is home and tending to her new infant less than a month after surviving without a pulse for 45 minutes following complications from a routine cesarean section.

A spokesman for Boca Raton Regional Hospital told The Associated Press on Sunday that a team of medical workers spent three hours attempting to revive the woman after a rare amniotic fluid embolism.

Spokesman Thomas Chakurda says the doctors were preparing to pronounce her death when a blip on a monitor indicated a heartbeat. Despite going 45 minutes without a pulse, she suffered no brain damage during the Sept. 23 ordeal.

"We had called a code that lasted for three hours. She essentially spontaneously resuscitated when we were about to call the time of death," said Thomas Chakurda, the hospital spokesman.

Doctors had called the family into the operating room and told them there was nothing more they could do for 40-year-old Ruby Graupera-Cassimiro.

Graupera-Cassimiro gave birth to a healthy daughter before amniotic fluid entered her bloodstream and heart and created a vacuum, stopping circulation. Doctors say condition is often fatal.

Chakurda said the woman's survival is a story of two miracles - her resuscitation and the fact that she survived without serious brain damage.

Medical workers used shock paddles and chest compressions throughout the emergency to try and restore heart beat and circulation, Chakurda said.

"Today she is the picture of health," he said.

He said her survival is a case of "divine providence."

Graupera-Cassimiro did not return a phone message left by The Associated Press on Sunday.

link

[Eternal_Freedom]

Well that's pretty cool.

I wonder if this is another case of that Lazarus Syndrome that's cropped up occasionally.

[Borgholio]

Kudos to the emergency workers who kept up really good chest compressions for that long. If the blood flow had stopped, she'd be a veggie right about now.

[SpottedKitty]

I wonder if this is another case of that Lazarus Syndrome that's cropped up occasionally.

Really Weird Stuff™ happens in our bodies on very rare occasions, although I must admit I hadn't heard of so many in modern times. Most of the cases I did know about were things like people pulled out of frozen lakes — I've read speculation that there's some kind of low temperature hibernation effect going on, but it doesn't work unless conditions are exactly right. The cases in the link are all new to me, that's not supposed to be able to happen in room-temperature conditions.

[mr friendly guy]

Medical workers used shock paddles and chest compressions throughout the emergency to try and restore heart beat and circulation, Chakurda said.

"Today she is the picture of health," he said.

He said her survival is a case of "divine providence."

I think the CPR and the ALS protocols might have something to do with keeping her alive without a heartbeat. Totally non bias medical opinion here.

Amazing story nevertheless. Kudos to those medical workers because CPR gets real tiring fast. Which is why others do the CPR while I run the MET calls.

[PainRack]

Medical workers used shock paddles and chest compressions throughout the emergency to try and restore heart beat and circulation, Chakurda said.

"Today she is the picture of health," he said.

He said her survival is a case of "divine providence."

I think the CPR and the ALS protocols might have something to do with keeping her alive without a heartbeat. Totally non bias medical opinion here.

Amazing story nevertheless. Kudos to those medical workers because CPR gets real tiring fast. Which is why others do the CPR while I run the MET calls.

Aren't they using the CPR boards in A&E nowadays?

[mr friendly guy]

Well I am ward based.