Follow Up: The Cardiac Arrest

Some of you wondered what became of a cardiac-arrest patient we recently resuscitated. (Winning the Battle; Losing the War, May 1, 2009.)

Well, I learned some details last night, and the news is surprisingly good. He didn't have a ruptured aneurysm at all, as we'd feared. In fact, it was a straight-up cardiac arrest, a so-called "primary arrest" that did not involve any medical conditions beyond the cardiac event itself.

The patient will survive. He suffered some brain damage after being deprived of oxygen, but he is awake, able to talk, and remains an inpatient at the hospital where we transported him. Soon he'll be transferred to a rehabilitation facility, where he'll receive physical and occupational therapy. Unfortunately, some of the brain damage is likely to be permanent. But the hospital staff expects him to make a good deal of progress, and hopefully, to return almost to normal.