Tragic

Last shift, I worked a 21 year cardiac arrest. It's not the youngest code I've every worked, but it's the closest in age.

The case is still under investigation, so I can't share too many details.

It was a 45 minute response for us, out to a back country highway. 45 minutes there and 45 minutes back. An hour and a half this code was run before we turned her over to the ER. The ER team continued to work for another 30 minutes, refusing to give up. But after 2 hours of CPR, defibrillation, drugs, and finally asystole, she was pronounced.

This is one I struggled with (and am still struggling with). It was the start of a 48-hour shift, after a series of shifts of codes, major medicals, and a grueling wilderness rescue. I was already psychologically exhausted and this is only fraying at my nerves.

I ran the details through my head afterwards and kicked myself for all the little things that I should have done, or things that I would have done differently. But I have to face the truth of it, she was worked for 45 minutes before I even arrived on scene--she was dead when I arrived.

The circumstances are tragic--details I can't talk about. I feel for this girl, and her family. I feel for the firemen first responders, my partner, and the ER doc and nurses. I swear the ER doctor was close to tears. I reported in my HEAR report that she was 26, only then did I look at the paper work, and do the mental math on her birthday--21. Does 5 years really matter? No. She was still far too young. Far too tragic.