Doctor saves man whose heartbeat goes in-and-out for 75 minutes

Mariecar Jara-Puyod, Senior Reporter

There are miracles and one happened recently when a 42-year-old expatriate was given a new lease in life after his heartbeat went “in-and-out” for a total of 75 minutes.

“Indeed, it was a miracle,” said Dr Adel Alsisi, adding that “perfect coordination and cooperation” from the parademics to the medical team and park visitors who had alerted the Dubai Corporation for Ambulance Services played a critical role.

The Prime Hospital medical director/Intensive Care consultant along with colleagues consultant cardiologist Dr VJ Sebastian, Anaesthesiology specialist Dr Prabaharan Balaji, and Interventional Cardiology specialist Dr Murali Krishna were interviewed as Gulf Today got interested in the near-death experience, especially so that death is expected  once the heartbeat stops.

What made the case more complicated, according to Alsisi, is that the man was “unknown” when the paramedics took him to the hospital at 8:45 p.m. on June 25.

That was a few minutes after strangers at the Mushrif Park found the man, clad in training suit, seemingly lifeless on the ground.

The hospital emergency team tried to revive the man through cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) combined with 12 electric shocks.

“I had the experience of applying 12 electric shocks on a patient. But our patient this time (got 16 electric shocks) which means he was in very critical condition. His heartbeat was in-and-out, in-and out,” Balaji said, adding that while part of the team was already on the lift from the ground floor Emergency Section to the Cathetirization Laboratory located on the fourth floor, he again applied another electric shock—the 13th—on the patient since the monitor was indicating they were again losing him.

Alsisi, the top management present at that time and the Intensive Care consultant on duty, said, “There was no way to identify the patient. There were no identification cards.  There was no family for the consent. But because it was life and death, we decided to go for the emergency coronary angioplasty.”

Based on the “tracing” of the Emergency Section team, there was a complete block on the patient’s coronary artery.

Sebastian oversaw and supervised the procedure that lasted for several minutes and wherein the medical team that assisted one another in applying the CPR effected another three electric shocks—for a total of 16—since they received the patient at 8:45 p.m.

Alsisi said the paramedics also did CPR and applied electric shocks on the patient en-route to the hospital.

He added it was his colleague from long time back, Murali, called in for the emergency surgery, that inserted the stent “within three minutes from the time the patient’s coronary artery was opened.”

The patient regained consciousness at 7 a.m. the next day. He was discharged on June 30.

The patient’s cardiologist, Sebastian, said it will take a full six weeks for the full recovery.

He advised that adults go for the yearly heart check-ups especially those with family history.

Citing the patient, Sebastian said: “He was leading an active lifestyle. But he was found collapsed on the ground in the park (the night he went for his routinary jogging).”

Sebastian’s youngest patient is 21 years old, “The average age of heart patients before was 40 years old. They have become younger now.”

He said, “The heart is a very unique organ which beats at 70 to 80 times per minute from the time you were born to the time you die. If it stops and the patient regains consciousness, most likely that there would be brain damage.”

Like the rest of the medical team, Sebastian was happy to note that the 42-year-old patient is alive and doing well: “He visited me the other day. He was thankful.”