Doctors Revive Woman After Record-Breaking 6 Hours in Cardiac Arrest
A woman from Barcelona, Spain, is recovering from cardiac arrest and hypothermia after falling unconscious in the Spanish Pyrenees mountain range.
Audrey Schoeman, a 34-year-old English teacher from the U.K., currently lives in Barcelona with her husband, Rohan.
The pair went hiking in November when a snowstorm hit, leaving Schoeman barely able to speak or move as she slipped out of consciousness, BBC News reported.
Schoeman was able to call for help, but poor weather conditions delayed the helicopter rescue.
By the time first responders were able to reach Schoeman, several hours after the call, she had severe hypothermia, according to The Guardian.
Briton Audrey Schoeman revived after six-hour cardiac arrest https://t.co/bypi7DFEID
— BBC News (UK) (@BBCNews) December 6, 2019
“She looked as though she was dead,” Eduard Argudo, Schoeman’s doctor, told BBC News in a statement. “But we knew that, in the context of hypothermia, Audrey had a chance of surviving.”
Argudo explained that Schoeman’s extremely low body temperature nearly killed her, but the hypothermic temperature ultimately protected her heart and brain from failure by slowing the organs down.
“If she had been in cardiac arrest for this long at a normal body temperature, she would be dead,” Argudo said.
British Woman Revived by Doctors After Her Heart Stopped for 6 Hours: ‘It’s Like a Miracle’ https://t.co/EVo6lEH1nh
— People (@people) December 6, 2019
Argudo and his medical team used a special machine called an extracorporeal membrane oxygenation machine or Ecmo to remove and oxygenate Schoeman’s blood. The Ecmo machine takes over the heart and lungs, allowing the organs to rest while still bringing oxygen to the brain, according to The Guardian.
Once Schoeman’s body had reached a normal temperature, doctors were able to use a defibrillator to revive the woman’s heart. By that time, Schoeman had been in cardiac arrest for approximately six hours, BBC News reported.
“Although hypothermia was about to kill Audrey, it also saved her because her body – and above all her brain – didn’t get any worse,” Argudo told The Guardian.
“If she’d been in cardiac arrest for that long with a normal body temperature, we’d have been certifying her death. But we knew that the severe hypothermia meant that we had a shot at saving her thanks to the Ecmo.”
“I feel almost as good as new.”
Audrey Schoeman was revived after her heart stopped for six hours after she suffered cardiac arrest and hypothermia whilst hiking in the Spanish Pyrenees.
She’s shared her experience with Sky News.
More here: https://t.co/Y1PIhgNj4W pic.twitter.com/BAWjnEbhA0
— Sky News (@SkyNews) December 6, 2019
Schoeman woke up in a state of confusion yet made a nearly full recovery after 12 days in the hospital. She is still recovering full feeling in her hands but is otherwise unscathed from the harrowing incident.
“I didn’t really know what was going on in my first day or two that I woke up in intensive care,” Schoeman said at a press conference, according to BBC News. “But since then, I’ve been trying to read more, obviously learning more about hypothermia and it feels really incredible that I survived it.”
“It’s like a miracle except it’s all because of the doctors,” Schoeman said.
Despite the ordeal, Schoeman would like to resume hiking in the spring or summer alongside her husband.
“I hope that in spring we will be able to start hiking again. I don’t want this to take away that hobby from me,” she said.
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