The plan I had for this week’s blog went out the window on Thursday night this week, for what turned out to be a night I shall never forget. Each year, my colleague and I take our amazing Dorset heart failure team out for a Christmas meal, and this year’s event was on Thursday at a local pub/restaurant. We had all sat down, crackers were pulled, and starters had just been served.
Suddenly, an incredibly fraught woman ran into the area of the restaurant we were in shouting ‘is anyone here a doctor?’ The look on her face told its own story, something serious was up.
I’ve been in this situation a few times. A couple of times on an airplane, once at the side of the road with a crashed car in the Chilean Andes, and it’s always really stressful. It’s one thing assessing and treating a patient in hospital when you’ve got all the kit, quite another in the big wide world.
I jumped up to run after her (thankfully someone reminded me to remove my party hat), and followed her round to the other side of the building where the pub was. There was a crowd of about 50 people, and in the middle, a man of about 70 collapsed on the floor.
He looked purple and was not breathing.
Someone nearby thought he may have choked. I couldn’t see anything obvious in his airway, or feel anything in his mouth with my finger. His teeth seemed his own and intact. I gave him back blows and abdominal thrusts (pretty tricky collapsed on the floor, perhaps all that weight training helped!) but nothing obviously came up.
He didn’t have a pulse, so I commenced CPR. To be honest, I thought he was dead already, and this may be futile. Cardiac arrests are so often fatal.
Someone had already called for an ambulance, but they were still 5 or 10 minutes away. Suddenly he took a breath (albeit a small raspy one) and when I felt for a pulse it was suddenly there (albeit a small and thready one). I put him in the recovery position, ably helped by a guy who turned out to be a lifeguard who supported his airway, and one of my fantastic nurses Julie.
Bit by bit over the next 5 minutes his breathing got more regular, and his pulse strengthened. His face went from a mottled purple colour to pink. By the time the ambulance crew arrived and checked his oxygen levels, they were 100%. They whisked him off to Bournemouth Hospital immediately.
The atmosphere in the pub went from unbelievably tense to profound relief. People clapped and cheered. I felt incredibly embarrassed, went to wash myself down then headed back to the table.
I couldn’t sleep that night, as was totally wired just trying to process the whole thing. It’s so strange to me that at work I’ve done this sort of stuff for over 20 years and it very rarely affects me, but this was very different. Julie said the same.
I went to find the man the next day at work, and he was sat reading a Richard Osman book on the ward! He told me he came round in the ambulance, with no recollection of events at all. There’s no better example of right place right time.
Clearly this is a pretty extraordinary story, but one that I want some good to come out of. Have you ever had something happen to you, and after the event wished you’d said ‘x’ or ‘y’ instead of whatever happened? I’m sure you have. About an hour after the event, it dawned on me that what I should have said to the assembled crowd (instead of looking sheepish and saying nothing), was ‘please go and learn basic life support!’. Out of the 50 or so people there, no-one knew what to do. Thankfully, many people read this blog these days, so I have a unique platform to reach out to you and ask:
‘What would you have done if you were there?’
If you’re not sure, that’s fine, no problem, but do me a favour please – read these resuscitation guidelines to at least familiarise yourself with them, or even think about booking on a course to learn. You never know, it might be you in that position one day, or it might be a loved one you save. I’ve lost count of the number of patients I have seen successfully resuscitated by a family member or friend.
One thing is for sure, I won’t forget that Christmas Party in a hurry!