Friday, March 29, 2024

Health

Mohali doctor battles 5 hours on flight to save man from cardiac arrest

PUNJAB NEWS EXPRESS5 | May 27, 2023 05:17 PM

CHANDIGARH: A precious life was saved on Air India 307 flight from Tokyo to Delhi on Friday when a 57 years old diabetic passenger, who suffered a massive heart attack was given timely cardiopulmonary resuscitation by Dr. Deepak Puri a senior cardiovascular surgeon from Max Hospital, Mohali onboard the flight .

Dr. Puri was returning from Tokyo after organizing a two day ‘Cardiomersion World Heart Congress’.

On noticing that the passenger had a cardiac arrest, Dr. Puri immediately rushed to his help. The patient was revived after a cardiac massage (CPR) by Dr. Puri with the help of the flight crew.

The heart attack led to cardiac arrest and the patient was medically dead for some time with no pulse, no heartbeat and no brain response, said Dr. Puri director of cardiovascular thoracic surgery at Max Hospital, Mohali.

The flight was over sea and the nearest airport was in Kolkata 5 hours away.

As the nearest destination was 5 hours away, it was a daunting task of keeping the patient stable for such a long time in flight with minimum resuscitation resources, said Dr. Puri.

The airlines arranged special permission for landing in Kolkata and an ambulance to take him to the nearest hospital where his 100 % blocked left anterior descending artery was immediately stented.

The patient is now safe and his brain and kidneys are fully functioning because of timely cardiopulmonary resuscitation, said much relieved Dr. Puri.

People must know the difference between heart attack and cardiac arrest as every heart attack may not cause cardiac arrest but if there is cardiac arrest the patient will die if cardiac resuscitation is not initiated immediately and continued till the artery can be opened up, informed Dr. Puri.

If the cardiac message is not initiated immediately permanent brain death occurs in 3 to 5 minutes. Time is very crucial in this situation. Everyone must be made aware about this so that many other lives can be saved, he added.

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