Resuscitation 97 (2015) e17

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Resuscitation journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/resuscitation

Letter to the Editor Awareness during resuscitation Sir, I read with interest the paper by Parnia and colleagues investigating awareness during resuscitation1 and was reminded of such an experience that occurred during my time as a trainee in anesthesia and critical care. A middle-aged lady was admitted into the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) following a myocardial infarction. Whilst I was sitting at the nurses’ station, she experienced a monitored cardiac arrest, with the rhythm being ventricular fibrillation. By the time I reached her bedside, she was unconscious and pulseless. My immediate reaction was to give a precordial thump, in accordance with the guidelines current at this time. Her cardiac rhythm reverted to sinus rhythm and after a few seconds she slowly regained consciousness. Over the next couple of days I could sense her watching me whenever I was on the ICU and eventually, I asked her why. After some hesitation, she admitted having had a very disturbing ‘dream’ in which I punched her very hard and she felt very guilty about this. I then sat with her and explained what had happened; that I had indeed ‘punched’ her but only in an attempt to restart her heart. She thanked me for my actions, but more so for the explanation and

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.resuscitation.2014.12.036 0300-9572/© 2015 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

alleviating her guilty feelings. I’ve never forgotten that lady, but have never experienced anything similar again despite attending many resuscitation attempts. My experience certainly supports the proposal that a degree of conscious awareness may exist in the first 20–30 s after cardiac arrest in some patients and the patient’s memories were unlikely to have occurred before or during the recovery from a cardiac arrest. Conflict of interest statement No conflicts of interest to declare. Reference 1. Parnia S, Spearpoint K, de Vos G, et al. AWARE – AWAreness during REsuscitation – a prospective study. Resuscitation 2014;85:1799–805.

Carl Gwinnutt 9 Coleridge Barns Chillington, Kingsbridge, Devon TQ7 2HR, United Kingdom E-mail address: [email protected] 28 December 2014

Awareness during resuscitation.

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