Hello,
You are a fixed wing air ambulance crew.
You are dispatched to transfer a post-code patient from a community hospital ED to a CCU in a large teaching hospital. Flight time is 90 minutes.
On arrival, you receive report from the nursing staff.
A 21 year-old women had a witness cardiac arrest at home. CPR was started and an ambulance was called. A BLS crew arrived and a shock was delivered with an AED and there was ROSC.
Once in the ED she was intubated (#7.5 ET 22cm at the lip) and place on a ventilator (AC 12/500/.50/+5). Her BP was low so a femoral line was inserted and Levophed started. Cooling was started as per direction from the CCU. She is unresponsive and on no sedation is running.
Anxious family is milling about. Her father wants to come with you. The staff seem keen on having her out the door.
You enter the resuscitation bay. The patient is very pale and thin (45kg). She is connected to a monitor. Levophed is infusing at .05mcg/kg/min and NS is running at100cc/hr in a IV in her right arm. Bags of ice are in the bed. She is shivering slightly. She is riding the ventilator (rate 12).
You look up at the monitor and see:
HR 60
EKG: slow, wide, diffuse ST depressions, PR depressions with a PVC here and there
BP 80/40
SpO2 100%
Cheers