Time of Death, 2217

I consider myself to be a good medic. I think that I have a good amount of knowledge combined with a decent amount of experience. Even with all that going I was a little nervous about running my first medical aid in almost half a year.

The call came in just before 10 at night. We were dispatched for a woman not breathing. While responding to the call we were informed that EMD had told the caller to start CPR. When we arrived on scene we hurried to the front door. After several knocks at the door without answer one of the firefighters prepared to force the door. Just then the husband opened it. He frantically told us that his wife was upstairs. When we walked in we found a woman in her late 60's on the floor. One of the firefighters quickly rolled her onto her back and checked if she was breathing (you always double check because it doesn't look too good to start CPR on a live person). He quickly determined that she was pulseless and apneic. He immediately started CPR while the other medic and I got set up to try and save this womans life. I jumped on the airway and got out a bag valve mask, the oxygen and an OPA while another firefighter put her on the monitor. She was in asystole, commonly called flat line. About this time the squad showed up for additional manpower. They set up the AutoPulse so that we could ensure adequate chest compressions. I grabbed a King tube and secured a better airway and placed her on capnography. While this was going on the other medic started an IO line and gave the first round of drugs. After a couple minutes of CPR we checked her heart rhythm again. It had not changed. By this time AMR had showed up and was assisting us with the family preparing them for the probably bad news. they explained what we were doing to try step by step. We did another round of drugs and continued CPR with no response. We finally determined that our efforts were futile and terminated resuscitative efforts at 2217 hours.

Not the best outcome but the odds were against us. The husband had no idea how long she had been down for and without quick CPR there is very little chance that we can do anything.