A resuscitation technique brought a man back to life after being clinically dead for almost an hour. Thanks to new techniques in the emergency department at Alfred Hospital in Australia, a 39-year-old man was given a second chance to live.
Alfred Hospital was able to bring Colin Fiedler back to life after he died from cardiac arrest for about 40 to 60 minutes. A mechanical CPR device called the AutoPulse was put to trial at the hospital and, so far, Alfred's medical team has used it on seven cardiac arrest patients.
The AutoPulse is developed by ZOLL and is a non-invasive cardiac support pump that takes the place of manual chest compressions. The first of its kind, the AutoPulse helps to improve blood flow by squeezing the entire chest and not just one spot as in manual compression.
Doctor's at Alfred hospital use the mechanical CPR device to perform constant chest compressions while a portable heart-lung machine keeps oxygen and blood flowing to the patient's brain and vital organs.
Fiedler is one of three patients to successfully be brought back to life with the AutoPulse device. Like Fiedler, the other patients were also clinically dead for a duration of 40 to 60 minutes. Paramedics in the ambulance gave Fiedler two hospitals to chose from. "For some reason, I said The Alfred, which is pretty lucky because they are the only one that has it," Fiedler said.
The machine is currently only available at the Alfred hospital, but the two year trials show promising results. Professor Stephen Bernard, senior intensive care physician at Alfred said he hopes use of the AutoPulse will expand to other hospitals.
