Patient with No Heartbeat Survives After 3.5 Hours on AutoPulse
Wednesday, 09 February, 2011
U.K. HOSPITAL REVIVES MAN WITH NO HEARTBEAT AFTER 3.5 HOURS ON ZOLL AUTOPULSE AND 20,000 CHEST COMPRESSIONS
Croydon University Hospital First in Europe to Standardize on AutoPulsefor Every Cardiac Arrest
ZOLL Medical Corporation, a manufacturer of medical devices and related software solutions, announced today that Croydon University Hospital in London successfully revived a 53-year-old man from sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) using the ZOLL AutoPulse® Non-invasive Cardiac Support Pump for 3.5 hours. The automated CPR machine performed nearly 20,000 chest compressions before the man's pulse returned.
"He had no pulse or heartbeat when he arrived at the hospital, so it is amazing that we were able to resuscitate him. I've not seen anything like it in 15 years in the emergency department," said Nigel Raghunath, M.D., who heads the hospital's emergency unit.
The patient, an East London engineer, was found lying unconscious in the street and hypothermic last month in temperatures of 14 degrees fahrenheit (-10C) when he was rushed to Croydon, where he suffered a cardiac arrest. Fortunately for him, he came under the care of two of the leading resuscitation experts in England, Dr. Raghunath and Russell Metcalfe-Smith, Clinical Lead for Resuscitation at Coydon. The patient was placed on the AutoPulse, which delivered 80 compressions per minute, allowing the team of medics to perform other
life-saving therapies.
"Even a fully-trained professional finds it hard to deliver consistent, high-quality chest compressions when attempting to resuscitate someone whose heart has stopped beating. A&E (Emergency Dept.) teams have a range of equipment available, but the AutoPulse means we can carry on helping someone's heart to beat for much longer-improving blood flow to vital organs and increasing their chances of recovery," said Dr. Raghunath.
"Without the AutoPulse, we would have needed relay teams of people continually performing chest compressions while we worked around them. With the clock approaching three and a half hours, the patient's pulse returned and his heart flickered back to life," said Metcalfe-Smith. "This is the stuff you read about in medical journals, but never expect to experience firsthand."
Croydon was the first hospital in the United Kingdom to use the AutoPulse when it was installed four years ago, and the first in Europe to standardize on its use for every cardiac arrest in the facility. The hospital also experiences one of the highest cardiac arrest rates in London in the Emergency Department, according to Metcalfe-Smith, with around 350 cardiac arrest cases brought into the department each year and another 185 in-hospital arrests.
About the AutoPulse
The AutoPulse Non-invasive Cardiac Support Pump is an automated, portable device with an easy-to-use, load-distributing LifeBand® that squeezes the entire chest, improving blood flow to the heart and brain during sudden cardiac arrest (SCA). The AutoPulse may offer a significant advantage over manual CPR, moving blood more consistently than human providers. AutoPulse delivers high-quality, uninterrupted chest compressions to maintain myocardial and cerebral perfusion. Additionally, it offers the benefit of freeing up clinicians and rescuers to focus on other life-saving interventions.
Earlier this month ZOLL announced the successful completion of the international CIRC (Circulation Improving Resuscitation Care) trial when an analysis of the data by the independent Data Safety Monitoring Board (DSMB) showed the load-distributing band (AutoPulse) to be equivalent to manual chest compressions. The CIRC trial compared the rates of survival to hospital discharge from out-of-hospital cardiac arrest of patients treated with the load-distributing band device to those receiving manual CPR.
Nearly 6,000 AutoPulse devices are in use in hospitals and emergency service organizations worldwide.
About ZOLL Medical Corporation
ZOLL Medical Corporation develops and markets medical devices and software solutions that help advance emergency care and save lives, while increasing clinical and operational efficiencies. With products for defibrillation and monitoring, circulation and CPR feedback, data management, fluid resuscitation, and therapeutic temperature management, ZOLL provides a comprehensive set of technologies that help clinicians, EMS and fire professionals, and lay rescuers treat victims needing resuscitation and critical care.
