Unknown 21 weeks pregnant, the woman almost died

09/06/2022 16:19 GMT+7

To promptly save the patient’s life, the treatment team was forced to terminate the pregnancy, remove the uterus, combine ECMO + cardiopulmonary resuscitation (E-CRP) and hypothermia to promptly save pregnant women in cardiac arrest.

Doctor Pham Minh Huy – Emergency Resuscitation Department of Cho Ray Hospital said that the patient was born in 1977, has a history of infertility and has just had a baby over 1 year old. When her period stopped for a long time, she thought that because she had just given birth and had not had a regular check-up, a week ago she was hospitalized in the emergency room, the patient had vaginal bleeding that was mistaken for a normal menstrual cycle.

On May 27, the patient was transferred to the emergency room at a private hospital because of heavy bleeding. At that time, the patient just found out that she was 21 weeks pregnant, bleeding due to the condition of the placenta.

In order to save the patient’s life, the doctors decided to perform emergency surgery to terminate the pregnancy and remove the uterus. The pregnant woman lost 1 liter of blood and had her first cardiac arrest.

Doctor Huy examines a patient.

Immediately, your hospital contacted Cho Ray Hospital, exchanged expertise, activated the red alarm and decided to order ECMO for the patient.

MSc Dr. Pham Minh Huy said that at that time it was 5 am, the number of doctors on duty was still small. With the consent of the leader, the ECMO team urgently mobilizes more personnel at home, prepares appropriate machinery and equipment, and quickly moves to your hospital.

While waiting for the ECMO team of Cho Ray Hospital to arrive, the doctor at your hospital performed a heart attack and very effective resuscitation for the pregnant woman. When the team of Cho Ray Hospital arrived at your hospital, the patient was in deep anesthesia, the pupils were 5mm dilated, the team carried out ECMO placement for the patient led by Dr. Tran Hoang An – Emergency Resuscitation Department of Cho Ray Hospital. successfully placed in 15 minutes, the patient developed a second cardiac arrest and continued to have a heart attack.

After the emergency and close monitoring, the patient’s blood pressure improved, the adrenaline dose was lowered, and the heart rate stabilized. After assessing the difficulty level as well as the safety rate during the hospital transfer, the team decided to bring the patient to Cho Ray Hospital at dawn on May 28 for further treatment.

The next day, at the Emergency Department of Cho Ray Hospital, the woman with abdominal bleeding had to undergo surgery to stop the bleeding. In parallel with maintaining the ECMO system, the patient’s body temperature was lowered to 35 degrees for 2 days, helping to protect the brain from damage. After more than 10 days of treatment, the woman has stabilized her health and is expected to be discharged from the hospital in the next few days.

Pham Minh Huy, MSc, said that it can be said that this is one of the most stressful cases in terms of time. Because the process of receiving information is during the night, the mobilization of technical personnel as well as the preparation of equipment suitable for the facilities of your hospital needs to be carried out quickly, expeditiously and accurately. corpse.

Especially the difficulties in the process of moving patients to Cho Ray hospital. Because in patients who have placed ECMO, right at the hospital bed, if not handled promptly, it may not save the patient’s life. Therefore, the transfer process can be said to be a very stressful time for the team, because any small incident on the car is very difficult to handle…

Khanh Chi