Jake is an Emergency Physician from Santa Cruz California whose interest in resuscitation was put to the fullest test when his own son had a cardiac arrest. This is the amazing retelling of that day in November when what Jake learned in an EDECMO workshop was utilized in a dramatic fashion. This is a story of two heros: Jake and his son Nate.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 32:38 — 44.9MB)
Subscribe: RSS
Jake is an Emergency Physician from Santa Cruz California whose interest in resuscitation was put to the fullest test when his own son had a cardiac arrest. This is the amazing retelling of that day in November when what Jake learned in an EDECMO workshop was utilized in a dramatic fashion. This is a story of two heros: Jake and his son Nate.
This was a very touching and inspirational story. The bravery that Jake showed in resuscitating his son is remarkable. As a father, I don’t know that I would be able to detach myself emotionally enough to perform the way he did or make these critical and life-saving decisions.
In listening to the case, however, I found myself wondering why the providers decided to start ECMO instead of empiric thrombolysis. From what I heard from the case presentation, it sounded like PE was the most likely cause of the arrest, and I believe I would have advocated for thrombolysis rather than trying to place the patient on ECMO. I would be interested in hearing why ECMO was chosen first. I imagine placing ECMO access after thrombolysis would be contraindicated due to bleeding risk from line placement, so perhaps it was best to start with ECMO cannulation until the diagnosis was confirmed? In addition, if you can comment on how long one would need to wait until attempting ECMO cannulation after a patient received lysis, I would be interested to know.
I would love to hear your thoughts.