The Da Nang General Hospital has just successfully saved the life of a male patient who was electrocuted and suffered cardiac and respiratory arrest.

Dr. Le Duc Nhan, the Director of the Da Nang General Hospital presented flowers and congratulated patients on the morning of November 27. (Photo: NDO)

After one month of treatment, 26-year- old patient residing in Man Thai Ward, Son Tra District, Da Nang has improved his breathing. He was removed from the ventilator and discharged from the hospital. This was a case that doctors at the hospital saved by performing ECMO (extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, a type of artificial life support that can help a person whose lungs and heart aren't functioning correctly) for the patient within 60 minutes.

Previously, at 4:00 p.m. on October 24, patient Le H.D was repairing electricity equipment at home on the corrugated iron roof when he was electrocuted, then called for help and fell on the corrugated iron roof. People around turned off the power and make a 115 emergency medical call. Medical staff promptly arrived at the scene and recorded the patient's cardiac arrest, respiratory arrest, and performed CPR, intubation, continuous balloon pumping for 20 - 25 minutes before transferring him to the Emergency Department at the Da Nang General Hospital.

At the the Emergency Room, the doctors and nurses recorded that the patient still had no circulation. At that time, the patient was initially determined to be "dead", but the doctors continued to perform emergency treatment, cardiac compression, and endotracheal intubation. Dr. Le Duc Nhan, the hospital’s Director suggested immediately setting up an artificial heart-lung system. The artificial heart-lung system, or ECMO technique, is very expensive.

The patient had stopped circulating for more than 30 minutes, so it was a case of “considering ECMO intervention” due to the very low chance of survival. However, the doctors still decided to use ECMO, because the patient was too young and “still had a chance of cardiopulmonary resuscitation” thanks to the continuous and methodical emergency care from the time of cardiac arrest until he was rushed to the hospital.

“Sometimes the decision to intervene for a patient is a doctor's professional intuition, and in this case it was the right decision," Dr. Nhan added, saying that the ECMO emergency red alert procedure was immediately initiated for the patient. The medical team, including the Intensive Care Unit, Cardiology, and the operating room unit of the Department of Anesthesia and Resuscitation, connected to V-A ECMO within 10-15 minutes.

Dr. Bui Van Dung, head of the ECMO team, said that the time from the scene of cardiac arrest to the implementation of the patient's ECMO technique was within 60 minutes.

The patient was treated with all modern advanced intensive care measures ECMO to support circulation, mechanical ventilation to support breathing, hypothermia to bring the target body temperature down to 33 degrees Celsius to protect the brain damaged by circulatory arrest, plasma exchange, continuous blood filtration, internal medicine to treat sedation-muscle relaxation, antibiotic therapy, vasopressors and other supportive treatments.

After more than 100 hours of intensive care, the patient’s circulation was restored, the patient was weaned from V-A ECMO and continued to receive intensive internal medicine treatment. After more than 10 days of treatment, given his improved breathing, he was weaned from the ventilator and the endotracheal tube has been removed. After one month of active treatment, the patient's health is stable and he has been discharged from the hospital.

According to doctor Ha Son Binh, the Head of the Department of Intensive Care and Anti-Poison at the Da Nang General Hospital, this was a very serious case, it seemed hopeless in the first 24 hours, but with determination, the entire hospital used all the most modern measures of the Intensive Care and Anti-Poison specialty.

“We raced against time to handle the complications of the disease every minute, and finally the patient miraculously revived from the brink of death and after one month of treatment, his condition improved well and he was discharged from the hospital," doctor Ha Son Binh shared.

Reporting by NDO - Translating by A.THU